Oral Feeding Disorder: How to Help Your Child Eat?

The oral zone is made up of the mouth at its centre, as well as the lips, tongue, salivary glands...

It has several functions, including nourishment (eating, drinking), pleasure (feeding, kisses) and also as a communication tool (speech). In this sense, if the oral zone is well stimulated, the development of language, relationships with others and communication will unfold harmoniously. The development of the oral zone therefore also plays a key role in self-confidence and self-image.
 

However, some children have not sufficiently stimulated their oral zone and may develop strategies to avoid overusing it. This can manifest as avoidance of certain foods or food refusal of all kinds. These behaviours, which can sometimes be difficult for parents to manage, risk becoming entrenched. It is therefore important to address these difficulties as early as possible.

In children, oral processing difficulties can have a functional origin (swallowing, chewing, or sucking difficulties) and/or a sensory origin.

In children, sensory difficulties are characterised by:
- Very slow meals, sometimes punctuated by waves of nausea
- Mealtimes that become a source of conflict between the child and their parents
- Little pleasure in eating
- A very strong food selectivity: selecting certain foods based on personal preferences, colour, or a particular brand. The range of accepted foods is very limited
- The child rarely puts objects in their mouth
- The child has little tolerance for lumps beyond 18 months
- The child cannot tolerate having dirty hands

It is entirely possible to prevent oral feeding difficulties. Here are our main recommendations for mealtimes.

To help your child overcome their oral sensory difficulties, you will need to support them with a great deal of patience and kindness. Here are our tips.

- Make sure you respect your child's rhythm by feeding them at their own mealtimes, that is between 11am and 12:30pm and then between 6:30pm and 7:30pm. Keep the same routine before, during, and after — for example: play, bath, meal.
- Let them discover foods through their senses. Children need to touch food with their hands and eat with their hands. Give them the time to have these experiences and help them to eat if needed with a second spoon.
- Let them put things in their mouth, making sure of course that the size is large enough to avoid choking. Therefore, avoid telling them not to put things in their mouth.
- Make sure you do not make your child feel guilty if they eat with their fingers or make a mess around them. Mealtimes and putting food in the mouth should always remain a pleasurable moment.
- Support them in developing their five senses: children need to discover what they eat through sensory exploration.

They need to smell, touch, and see the foods that make up their meal.
Touch: develop the oral sphere (allow objects to be put in the mouth, let the child get messy)
Smell: Cook together, play smell lotto games, tell the child they can smell the foods
Sight: Present foods in a playful way by sorting them by colour or going to the market together
Hearing: think about crunchy textures. Auditory feedback encourages chewing.
Taste: discovering new flavours by first prioritising foods with a similar texture, then gradually introducing new textures, and also offering tastes of what is on our plate (depending on age and their own cues).