not believing this about preschoolers being unable to chew

[SolidButShamblingUndeadBrass]

Has anyone else heard something to the effect that due to evil chavvy parents who are Selfish and Don't Care, lots of reception-age children can't chew food properly as they have been fed so much slop their jaws haven't developed?
It just sounds implausible to me. I thought the oiks fed their DC Greggs products from 6 weeks old anyway and you need your bloody teeth to get through a steak bake...

I mean eating lots rather than, literally eating as a horse would (I have something of a camel-like jaw action myself)

I can believe it :(

I thought the fact that some kids can't use cutlery was bad enough! :(

relative lives in v affluent hampshire city and told me years ago that a v high percentage of her dc reception class had to have speech therapy - she maintains it was because the mothers didn't talk to their own children enough during the formative years.

I am a CM in a middle class area, ( Military, Royal Signals) and the amount of children I have had through my doors that cant chew is unbelievable, these are intelligent, high achieving parents in the most part.

So it isnt done to just the 'lower classes'!

Oh dont you lot, you are making me feel awful .
My 4 yr old could never suck properly so had problems with bottles, and had no chance on the breast. This has progressed, and now age four has a speech issue (cant proununce 'L' sounds, and just puts food in her mouth, gives one chew and swallows. She is a huge choking hazard!
Its never been because of her diet (im quite good at the whole food thing), and Id hate for anyone to think that

yy not a class issue

FECKING HELL! I'm a doctor who has spent most of my working life working with the most deprived people in South Africa (people living WAY below the bread line) and this kind of disability is only evident in SN kids (eg with CP etc)

Wow! I'm really shocked, actually.

(and very sad )

Where I live the council and pct are running a campaign called "Talk matters" to explain the benefits of talking to your baby/young child. Very sad that people just don't. It's a result of children entering EYFS and not being able to string a sentence together.

Really are there any papers on this I'm shocked! Truely.. off to google

This is so sad and thank goodness for teachers intervening to help some of these kids.

Not all children with speech issues also have eating issues though. My ds is a great eater, but has verbal dyspraxia. I'd hate to think people who saw him thought that he couldn't speak because I only fed him yogurts and never spoke to him at home. Nothng could be further from the truth. I can't wait to hear his voice.

Sorry for hijack but speech issues often have a neurological basis rather than developmental/environmental.

eem and mfg - of course there are always going to be medical reasons and exceptions but the point i was making was that at my relatives dcs school it was over a third of the class iirc that had this problem, way too many for it to be down to purely medical reasons.

I am shocked too!

Mind you I remember a girl I was at Uni with back in the 80s who mostly ate mince rather than any other sort of meat because she said it was just too much hard work to chew the more solid pieces!

we have several kids in reception with poor language skills and we are unusual in our area to have high levels of tooth decay. We have kids walking into school with a bag of wotsits and a fruit shoot. Breakfast of champions.

Before evryone bangs the drum about Con/Dem govt withdrawing funding, I would just state - we are a childrens centre, and have been running groups and classes and all sorts for years about parenting/cooking/playing with your child/nutrition etc. We cannot reach those that we need to reach because they simply will not attend these groups. No matter if you run them in the day or night, no matter if you supply a free creche...they will not engage. Even personal invitations do not work. You can lead a horse to water and all that.

bit defeatist shongolo

while I appreciate fully the difficulties inherent in trying to reach the neediest families - we are also a children's centre - our outreach efforts have not been a complete waste of time and many, many children with acute needs ARE engaged with us and ARE receiving the support and help they need. The fact that there are so many more out there is an incentive to try harder, not an excuse for defeatism.

so I'll feel free to continue "banging the drum" when it comes to funding being withdrawn from essential front line services, if it's all the same to you

our parenting classes/basic cooking skills/basic literacy and numeracy/family support play sessions are FULL, the take-up for these services in our very deprived area has grown and grown and we are very proud of this

if you really feel that the people with the greatest needs are unreachable, maybe you should consider a less taxing career

I have read this thread with my jaw on the floor- medical cases exempted, how very, very horrible. Poor kids! [hsad]

This explains the explosion in baby led weaning around my way. Govmt trying to set trends to help the less "educated"

This is awful.. :(
There's just no excuse is there... :(

GreenStinkingStumpSleeves get off your high horse will you?

I dont work for a childrens centre. I am governor of one. Im stating facts about our area, a subject which you have no knowledge.

Our classes are also full. We run a special education bus to reach places that are hard to access - like traveller sites and remote villages.

But our classes are often full of the people who maybe do not need us- like the English as a foreign language course - we cannot get the Thai brides to come along, but its full - of au pairs.

Our bumps and babes - full of yummy mummies

Our teenage mum group.....no one came.

We have involved health visitors and outreach workers, we have play rangers and free creches, we run computer classes, literacy classes, numeracy classes, all these are full....but still we cannot attract the people we are hoping to attract - the kind of mums alluded to on this thread.

However, this will not stop us from trying.

So sad. :(
How is our society to ever advance itself when people who don't have SN children can't give them proper food?
Am truly shocked.

Have to admit even though we are fans of greggs, we also eat a whole varity of food and my toddler is capable of biting into a healthy crunchy apple. Yum!

Jesus. It's incredible how much a child can be fucked up by shite parenting.

Where are you from Shongololo? (Just asking as you have a very distinctive name [hsmile])

I think some mums (well quite a few that I met when I was weaning dd2) worry an awful lot about choking on lumps and so over puree the food for ages.

I suppose then the baby gets used to having smooth food, and starts to have trouble chewing.

I met quite a few mums who would spend ages making beautiful food for their los, and then puree it so that it was like yoghurt. They would always ask me if I didn't panic when dd2 was cramming chunks of bread or pasta in her mouth.

she is good nemo. just hitting the fussy toddler stage. which is awkward as such a lot of stuff she cant eat due to her allergies.

just remember though (playing devil's advocate here) that these "fucked up children" will one day become adults, who, possibly not knowing any better, will do the same to their kids.

So I think the parents should be pitied rather than criticised.