Beginning Food Exploration With Your Baby

Starting solid foods with your little one will bring on so many questions- What foods do I introduce first? Will my baby like to eat? What seating position should they be in? Is gagging normal? Are they even ready?! Today’s blog talks about HARD MUNCHABLES and our goal in sharing this information is to teach you a fantastic tool to help your child explore foods and learn the skills to eat.

It is important to note that the purpose of a hard munchable is NOT consumption. A hard munchable is a food item that is typically cylindrical in shape and is difficult to bite or chew, think jicama, celery sticks, beef jerky! For a new eater, these items are fantastic tools in teaching the skills needed to eat. The purpose of using a hard munchable is for your child to practice moving hard solids/foods around in the mouth. A hard munchable should be small enough to fit in the mouth but large enough that the child cannot get a piece off.

A hard munchable is a tool to help desensitize the child’s tongue and move the gag reflex toward the back of the mouth. Did you know that the gag reflex starts on the tip of the tongue? It is through exploration with toys, hands, and foods that children desensitize their tongue and move the gag reflex further back in their mouth to more easily consume solid foods.

In the photos below, you will see a child using a hard munchable, ex: celery stick, to scoop hummus. This child is lateralzing his tongue against the hard munchable, another necessary skill when beginning to eat solid foods. Try giving your child pureed solids and hard munchable and watch them explore these food items as they learn the skills for eating! Questions about your child’s feeding skills? Email us at nicole@speechrise.com