14mo and chewing

[drivingmisscrazy]

DD is 14mo, was BLW (more or less) - can feed herself with a spoon (though prefers fingers!), eats a good range of foods. BUT she is not very good at chewing (she has 7 1/2 teeth) - so she loves tomatoes, but if you give her a cherry tomato she will suck the middle out and spit out the rest. Ditto with various foods, especially if they are not soft. She has 2 bottles a day now - 150ml am and 180ml before bed, plus milk with her cereal and usually some yogurt.

She is healthy, can say quite a few words (but mostly not very distinctly), but I think that she should be able to chew a bit more efficiently by this age. But I don't know much about children, so I'd appreciate any tips for teaching her how to chew and not spit out half of her food!

I wouldn't worry too much, some babies just get the hang of it later than others. My DD is near enough 18 months and has only just started chewing well (and she can only say 4 or 5 words), although when she has a tooth coming she still refuses everything except milk. She was spitting out food exactly as you describe until about a month or 6 weeks ago.

As long as your DD is healthy and putting on weight then I don't think there's too much to worry about yet. Just keep giving her a range of different things to try and eventually she will get it

thanks - that's what I assumed really - her weight is fine, I think. Looks OK (slight pot belly, chubby thighs ) and was about 22lbs the last time I looked.

Aw, chubby thighs, how sweet! I had loads of people make comments about my DD not eating, several people seemed to be under the impression that if I stopped BF then she would magically start eating a full Sunday roast luckily I have a sensible health visitor who reassured me. My DD starting eating solids all of a sudden, as someone on MN predicted she would