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DS5 chewing up and spitting out food


blueshoe

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In the last week or so DS5 has started coming to us saying he’s “choked” on his food. What he actually means by this is that he’s chewing it, then realising he doesn’t like the texture and spitting it out. At first it was just peanut butter sandwiches/toast, then also other chewy/doughy type things like donuts, muesli bars, pizza. Dry or crunchy foods like dry cereal, carrot sticks etc are completely fine. He’s otherwise perfectly fine, happy and active and I can’t think of any incident that might have triggered any sort of sudden texture aversion. He seems perplexed and mildly upset that it keeps happening, so I don’t think it’s being done for attention/acting out.

What do I do?? Take him to the GP to get checked? Wait and see if it goes away?

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LemonMyrtle

My 5YO has learned (been told) that if he comes a across a texture/food he doesn’t like, and it gets stuck in his mouth, he quietly gets a tissue and spits it out into that and puts it beside his plate. He may say “I don’t like that bit”

That usually cues the end of dinner time for him, so then he takes his plate and tissues to the kitchen. It happens every other dinner time. He is just sensitive to textures, particularly dinner food textures. He also prefers crunchy things.


it’s not an issue for us cause it’s not every meal, and he still eats a variety of food. So we will just put up with it for now. I was sensitive to food for a long time as a child. Now I eat everything. So I’m hoping he will get over it, eventually.


It’s not a problem until it’s a problem, I often say about DS’s quirks, and this is one of those things that isn’t worth changing.

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My 5YO has learned (been told) that if he comes a across a texture/food he doesn’t like, and it gets stuck in his mouth, he quietly gets a tissue and spits it out into that and puts it beside his plate. He may say “I don’t like that bit”

That usually cues the end of dinner time for him, so then he takes his plate and tissues to the kitchen. It happens every other dinner time. He is just sensitive to textures, particularly dinner food textures. He also prefers crunchy things.


it’s not an issue for us cause it’s not every meal, and he still eats a variety of food. So we will just put up with it for now. I was sensitive to food for a long time as a child. Now I eat everything. So I’m hoping he will get over it, eventually.


It’s not a problem until it’s a problem, I often say about DS’s quirks, and this is one of those things that isn’t worth changing.

 

Thanks LM. Has your DS been like this for a long time or is it a fairy new behaviour?

We thought DS was actually choking on his food once and it turned out he just really couldn’t stand the texture and taste of cheesecake. That was a one-off 18 months ago and we hadn’t had any further issues until this started up.

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LemonMyrtle

My 5YO has learned (been told) that if he comes a across a texture/food he doesn’t like, and it gets stuck in his mouth, he quietly gets a tissue and spits it out into that and puts it beside his plate. He may say “I don’t like that bit”

That usually cues the end of dinner time for him, so then he takes his plate and tissues to the kitchen. It happens every other dinner time. He is just sensitive to textures, particularly dinner food textures. He also prefers crunchy things.


it’s not an issue for us cause it’s not every meal, and he still eats a variety of food. So we will just put up with it for now. I was sensitive to food for a long time as a child. Now I eat everything. So I’m hoping he will get over it, eventually.


It’s not a problem until it’s a problem, I often say about DS’s quirks, and this is one of those things that isn’t worth changing.

 

Thanks LM. Has your DS been like this for a long time or is it a fairy new behaviour?

We thought DS was actually choking on his food once and it turned out he just really couldn’t stand the texture and taste of cheesecake. That was a one-off 18 months ago and we hadn’t had any further issues until this started up.

 

He has always been a bit fussy. Hard to tell if he has got worse as he got older. It’s more that he is fussy about different things than he used to be.

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Randomly. Could his tonsils be swollen? You should look with a torch to check. Could be enlarged but not infected (no pain).

 

I will take a quick peek now before he goes to bed. Thanks!

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I only know because DD saw an ENT (she needed adenoids out) and he said that her tonsils are enraged but not big enough to warrant removal at that point (and she doesn't tend to get tonsillitis).


I was intrigued so had a look with torch and spoon myself. They actually are noticeably enlarged.


ETA - apparently it can affect swallowing.

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Tried to have another look with a spoon tongue depressor but still no luck. Poor baby just got very upset “choking” on a donut. :cry: Crying as he was trying to scrape all the chewed up bits off his tongue. Also managed to have problems with his Cheerios this morning. Going to see if I can book a GP appointment for tomorrow to see if they have any idea what’s going on. Trying not to let myself freak out about worst case scenarios.

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A speech therapist might help too. they look at eating and swallowing issues.

Did he have a tongue tie as a baby? bottle fed or breast fed and were there issues with his feeding?

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A speech therapist might help too. they look at eating and swallowing issues.

Did he have a tongue tie as a baby? bottle fed or breast fed and were there issues with his feeding?

 

Fully BF, no tongue tie (I think his sister had a mild one, he was much easier to feed - no problems at all) but he does have some pronunciation issues we have been working on at home. Thanks for the suggestion, I will see what the GP says first but that’s definitely a good option to consider. We had an excellent speechie for DD - hopefully she is still around, she was excellent.

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  • 1 month later...

My DS used to choke on food and was constantly dribbling up to the age of 4. We happened to have a locum when i took him to the doctor for something else and when he looked in his mouth was shocked as a ENT surgeon that his tonsils were basically touching. He had never had a throat infection of any description and the surgeon seemed to think they had been like it since birth. Tonsils were taken out less than 2 weeks later and my son then started eating properly and stopped dribbling. He still now at the age of 13 still occasionally chokes on things like bacon rind as he doesn't seem to chew, he just shovels it in and swallows.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd be checking out those tonsils. My daughter just had hers out due to chronic tonsillitis. They were so enlarged there was hardly any gap for her to breathe through. Does he have sleep issues, snoring, night terrors, grumpy and non-functional in the mornings?  My daughter had the sleep problems and became extremely fussy about food, declaring most things 'yukky' and often just taking one bite of something she would eat. Apparently it can make food taste strange. She'd never complained of a sore throat, and the surgeon said that's because it was normal for her and she didn't know any different. She didn't have choking problems, but definitely major issues with food and much lighter weight than her peers.  A friend had trouble with her child choking and unable to swallow tougher food such as meat. 

She had them out about 6 weeks ago and her sleep has improved a great deal, even sleeping through on a couple of nights. She's much happier in the mornings and her appetite seems to be returning.  It will take a while to get her to eat a variety of food but yesterday she ate a cheese and bacon puff which she wouldn't have even looked at before. Best of luck sorting it out. 

Edited by Demera
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On 17/04/2021 at 8:27 PM, DaLittleEd said:

I only know because DD saw an ENT (she needed adenoids out) and he said that her tonsils are enraged but not big enough to warrant removal at that point (and she doesn't tend to get tonsillitis).

 

I was intrigued so had a look with torch and spoon myself. They actually are noticeably enlarged.

 

ETA - apparently it can affect swallowing.

Kids with enlarged tonsils also tend to eat with their mouth open!

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The problem went away by itself thankfully. I’m guessing maybe it was connected to a sore throat or slightly enlarged tonsils which have since resolved. Fingers crossed I don’t get a reoccurrence. Hopefully some of the info posted this thread will help others in a similar situation in the future - thanks to everyone who shared their stories 🙂

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