Speech and language appointment for eating

[Smedsmoos]

We have an appointment with SALT tomorrow and I’m looking for some advice before we go please.

My DS is 13 months (was born 5 weeks early) and isn’t a good eater. He will happily eat food if it’s pureed however will chew finger food and spit it out.

We had two appointments with SALT at around 8 months and they didn’t observe him eating, they said as long as he was gaining weight and at least touching the food and putting it in his mouth they weren’t concerned.

Should I push for them to observe him eating tomorrow? Is there anything else I can push for? I’m worried they will tell me it’s completely fine. All of his peers eat food amazingly well so I’d really like to get the most out of our referral to help improve his eating.

Any tips on how to tackle the appointment or even help him to swallow solids would be much appreciated!

They may ask to see him eat at this point (if he wants to, so no snacks just before!). I'm an adult and under salt and they are always getting me to try this or that.

Thank you! Last time I went they told me ‘don’t worry, there’s 4 year olds who are still on a milk only diet he’ll be fine’ but that doesn’t reassure me any!

Purees are only supposed to be used for a couple of weeks and should be made gradually coarser/lumpier right from the start, otherwise babies develop a preference. This is partly why BLW is the preferred weaning method now. You definitely need to start making less-smooth purees to help him get used to non-pureed food or this will carry on being difficult.

I wouldn't be that worried he's not eating much, 13 month olds don't eat much. Their nutritional needs are very small. Is he breastfed? My experience with my own EBF child and several other people I knew was that they didn't really eat many solids until they were 18 months+.

Thanks for this. Our preferred method of weaning was BLW but he really didn’t take to it. We weren’t too stressed as he would take the odd naturally puréed food like soup, yoghurt etc.

While I say he’s still on puréed food I probably should have said it’s ’wet foods’ he eats well. So the likes of bolognese, curries, soups etc so long as the veg is chopped really small and is soft and the meat is small or shredded too. Anything that he has to chew too much he doesn’t swallow.

I think I worry because his peers easily eat 4 or 5 times the amount as him and are also breastfed. He is breastfed but only once a day at bedtime (and a couple times over night) so I can’t imagine he’s filling up too much on that.

That’s helpful to know though, thanks for sharing!

I’d take a food diary of the things you have offered recently and his response to evidence you’re doing the right things e.g. Offering a mix of textures. Write his response as well especially if he’s gagging/coughing/spluttering/eyes watering as that could be a sign of a swallowing problem or sensory issue affecting his eating.

your instincts are telling you something isn’t right, even if they can reassure you that you’re on the right track and to monitor for another x or so months before they would be concerned hopefully that will help.

That just sounds like a preference for softer foods which is not uncommon even in adults.

My DH will always choose mash and I will always choose roasties!

It sounds like he's a pretty good eater based on what you've written above, I wish my 5 yo ate more wet foods as she prefers everything plain and not to touch and getting her to eat even a mild curry and not just rice and naan is hard work.

How did it go?

You could bring a video to appointment