Baby Led Feeding, Blog, Blog - Baby

How to teach baby to chew and swallow safely

Mallory Roberts is the Speech-Language Pathologist on the My Little Eater team and the owner of The Feeding Mom. She helps parents with common feeding struggles using oral movement, expert feeding techniques, and years of experience professionally and as a mom of four herself. Learn more about her work at The Feeding Mom and follow her on Instagram @thefeedingmom.

Arguably, the biggest concern that parents have when starting solids is the actual safety of offering various foods to their little one. Parents are also often skeptical about their baby’s ability to bite, chew, and swallow food.

How do they know how to chew food?
How do they know when it’s safe to swallow food?
What if they chew food but don’t swallow it?
What if they put too much food in their mouth?

These are all valid concerns! Let’s break down the skill of chewing and troubleshoot common chewing issues like mouth-stuffing, big bites, chewing but not swallowing, and more, so that you can feel confident knowing your baby is safe when they take their first bite of solid food.

If you’re just getting started with solids, or maybe you’ve started but feel stuck or would like some guidance to make things easier – sign up for our free workshop!

This is for parents who are worried about the safety of finger foods, can’t stand the thought of their baby gagging or taking big bites, and are so concerned with choking that it’s preventing them from moving on from purees.

During the workshop, we’ll walk you through our signature Texture Timeline™ which shows you how to move from purees to finger foods in a way that works for both you and your baby.

Chewing skill progression

As with most baby-related things, there are stages of skill development for chewing food. Babies aren’t instantly able to chew and swallow solid food as an adult would. They need time and practice to progress to that skill level.

The oral movement patterns required to start solids will begin to emerge around the 6 month mark and continue to develop well into toddlerhood (we’ll discuss the 3 primary stages of that development below).

However, prior to developing patterns of oral movement, certain preliminary skills will be evident, including:

Suckle movements: Used for nursing or bottle feeding.
Phasic bite reflex: When input on the upper jaw triggers your baby to bite down. This could be something like a teether, toy, spoon, etc., touching the top of your baby’s mouth along the jawline.
Lateral tongue reflex: Allows their tongue to follow input in their mouth. For example, if you use a long teether to touch the back of your baby’s gumline where their molars would be, on the right side, their tongue will automatically move to the right side of their mouth toward that input.

As your baby gets closer to 6 months old and begins to develop the various signs of readiness to start solids, they’ll begin using different oral movements in conjunction with each other to develop specific chewing patterns required for eating solid foods.

While this development through different stages of chewing occurs naturally, it does require exposure to various textures and types of foods to enhance these skills and become more efficient at them.

Without proper practice with various textures, your baby may become stuck in a certain stage until they develop the skill and strength needed to advance to the next stage.

Stage 1: Munching (around 5-6 months)

Munching refers to a simple up-and-down motion of the jaws and tongue. We often notice this skill emerge when babies start mouthing objects, around 5-6 months of age.

A munching pattern incorporates the phasic bite reflex with tongue elevation. This means that as the object or food is brought into your baby’s mouth, past their gums, the phasic bite reflex is triggered, causing them to munch down. At the same time, their tongue pushes up towards the roof of their mouth.

This pattern aids in oral mapping, which is your baby’s awareness of their oral space (ie. the boundaries of their mouth).

Oral mapping helps to desensitize the gag response and increases safety while eating because it allows your baby to more easily keep track of food as it moves within their mouth.

This munching pattern also builds jaw strength and continued tongue movement. Both of these are important for starting solids around 6 months because they help break down softer solids (by pushing them into the roof of their mouth).

As your baby progresses with exposure to different textures, this pattern matures and their bite becomes more controlled and purposeful.

Best foods for practicing munching

If you would like to help your baby develop their munching pattern, offering finger foods found in phase 0 of our Texture Timeline™ (what we refer to as hard munchables) is best. These are cohesive and provide the input and resistance needed to trigger the phasic bite reflex, and they allow for lots of practice without breaking down easily in the mouth.

Here are some phase 0 foods to try…

Raw asparagus stalk
Whole, raw carrot
Pineapple core
Chicken drumstick bone
Raw lettuce rib
Watermelon rind

Please do not offer any of these options to your baby if they have teeth and are able to take bites as that would make them unsafe.

Stage 2: Diagonal shifting (around 8 months)

Around 8 months, you’ll see changes in the movement of your baby’s jaw, which will begin to move diagonally while their tongue begins to move side-to-side (in a more controlled way and not just as a reflexive motion). This development generally coincides with the emergence of the pincer grasp.

However, it is difficult to provide an exact time because this stage requires enough practice with the previous stage in order to have the munching pattern evolve into diagonal shifting.

The diagonal movement of the jaw coupled with the lateral movement of the tongue and purposeful biting, allows food to be moved to each side of the mouth, over the molar area.

The increased tongue movement is also helpful for keeping track of smaller pieces of food, which they may now be eating more of thanks to their pincer grasp.

This is the beginning of the next stage of your baby chewing – the rotary chew.

Best foods to practice diagonal shifting

To help your baby develop their chewing skills at this stage so they’re ready to progress to rotary chewing, it’s important to offer them foods that will spread out in the mouth. This could be either purees or soft solids that will break apart easily to take up space within the mouth – think of phase 1 foods on the Texture Timeline™.

Here are some phase 1 foods to try…

Hand mashed avocado
Cottage cheese
Hummus
Thin rice rusks
Raspberries
Raw, very ripe papaya

Stage 3: Rotary chew (around 10 months and beyond)

The rotary chew pattern is the most advanced and typically emerges around 10 months, continuing to mature through age 3.

This pattern will allow your baby to take purposeful bites, and move the food to the sides of their mouth without losing it. It can be a combination of the diagonal shifting movements and the munching pattern’s vertical movements.

This is the pattern that allows food to be ground down by the molars because the movements are used to place the food in that area, and the combo of lateral and vertical movements causes food to be crushed between the molars (or the hard gums where the molars will later emerge).

Sometimes babies need more support in developing this chewing pattern, and that’s okay. As babies learn and practice chewing in this way, you will commonly see stuffing, spitting, sucking, or holding of foods.

Keep reading to learn how to help them through these common behaviors.

Best foods for practicing rotary chewing

This stage is one that does need to be “taught” in that it won’t happen naturally without the proper progression in textures and practice handling different foods in the mouth. Your baby won’t wake up one day and just know how to chew in this pattern if they are never provided with the textures needed to encourage it.

We recommend offering various phase 2 and phase 3 textures from the Texture Timeline™, specifically meat and other firm textures in order to allow this stage of chewing to develop.

Here are some phase 2 foods to try…

Oatmeal fingers
Bean burger
Sardines
Strawberries
Risotto
Cantaloupe

And here are some phase 3 foods to try…

Cauliflower rice
Orange slices
Mushrooms
Steel cut oats
Omelet strips
Bell peppers

Why is chewing so important?

Taking the time to properly chew your food has many benefits. It can also be something that even adults struggle to remember! For example, when we’re in a rush, we tend to eat quickly and may not chew as thoroughly as we should.

That’s why we want you to keep these benefits in mind, especially when eating with your baby. You help to set the pace, and your baby will mimic you. Take the time to chew your food completely so that your baby learns to do this as well.

It’s not just about breaking down the food…even when eating pureed food, your baby needs to chew!

Chewing also plays a critical role in a baby’s overall development, including:

Strengthening jaw muscles: Essential for speech development and proper oral function.
Improving oral awareness: Helps babies learn where food is in their mouth, reducing gagging and choking risks.
Supporting digestion: There is a digestive enzyme in saliva that is released as you chew and begins to break down food before it is even swallowed. The more you chew, the more enzymes are released and mixed with the food, which is a great start to digestive support.
Developing fine motor skills: Picking up food, bringing it to their mouth, and chewing all contribute to coordination and dexterity.

How to encourage your baby to chew

Offer pre-loaded spoons with pureed/mashed food on them or various textures of finger foods to practice self-feeding, which allows your baby to set the pace. It also provides exposures to various types of textures, which is crucial when learning to chew. Babies’ chewing skills need practice to expand and continue to develop so they can handle all types of foods in their mouth safely.

If you are spoon-feeding them, it’s even more important that you be aware of the pace. Slow down and let them chew before offering more. We don’t want to be offering food so quickly that it encourages them to swallow without chewing at all.

If they do swallow big bites – don’t panic – use it as a queue that the pace of the meal needs to be slowed and make adjustments.

Now that we know how babies chew and why it’s important that they continue to develop their chewing skills, let’s answer some of the most common questions about your baby’s chewing.

Common Chewing Issues and How to Help

1. What if my baby only sucks on solid foods?

Keeping a “suck” pattern when starting solids is common. It’s often accompanied by a tongue thrust which is a protective reflex that causes the tongue to come out of the mouth during swallowing. The reflex is triggered by something touching the tongue or lips.

Before introducing solid foods, you should notice this begin to diminish – which is actually one of the developmental signs of readiness to begin.

How to encourage chewing instead of sucking

Taking time to practice with foods in phase 0 of the Texture Timeline™ will help to diminish this reflex completely. Phase 0 foods are either hard munchables or very thin purees. Hard munchables are foods that your baby can’t bite through such as a mango pit or watermelon rind.

The more practice they have with bringing these foods into their mouth, the less reactive the tongue thrust reflex will be.

If you’re starting at phase 0 with very thin purees, letting your baby self-feed can help diminish the reflex and therefore minimize the sucking motion because they’re in control of the spoon.

However, if you’re spoon-feeding them, be sure to remove the spoon and not allow them to suck on it. The spoon goes in, lips close, and the spoon gets pulled out.

No swiping the food off the gum line. No letting the spoon sit in the mouth for a long time.

In addition, you can support a chewing motion over sucking by utilizing stick teethers outside of mealtime. Stick teethers are important for getting to the back of the gum lines.

Most standard teethers stay within the center of the mouth, but this only promotes the use and awareness of the mouth in the front and center spaces (ie. the area needed for sucking on bottles, soothers, or nursing).

Offering a stick teether to your baby and placing your hands over theirs to help guide the teether to the side and back of the mouth, over their molar area, will help encourage them to begin munching up and down on the teether.

2. My baby gags frequently

Gagging is the brain’s initial protective mechanism of the airway. If the body doesn’t recognize the object, or feel safe with it there, gagging will occur to push the object out.

While this is completely normal (plus helpful from a safety perspective!), there are things we can do to help desensitize that reflex to improve acceptance of various foods.

During a gag response, keeping your reaction neutral can play a big role in what your baby’s brain determines as safe or not. Babies tend to feed off of our emotions – so if you’re panicked and upset, they will be too.

Do your best to stay calm and give your baby time to respond to the gag.

If your baby continues gagging for a long time and needs more help to get it to stop, try rubbing along the jawline lightly and making big munching movements with your mouth. This will allow your baby to imitate you, which will support them in “pulling out of the gag.”

How to help your baby gag less

To decrease continued gagging, we need to support oral awareness, as mentioned previously. This means we need to help them become more aware of the boundaries of their mouth.

This can be done by offering sips of ice-cold water or serving food with lots of flavor, such as a strong garlic flavor. These big sensations make it easier for your baby to feel where the food is in their mouth and therefore learn how large the space is.

However, we need to also consider the tongue and palate connection. At times, a high palate and/or decreased tongue movement can keep a gag response sensitive. If your baby is unable to move their tongue in a way that allows them to keep control over the food, it’s more likely to slip back on the tongue and trigger the gag reflex.

Oral movement can be important here. Oral movements are simple ways to engage with your baby to facilitate specific muscle functions.

For example, rubbing your finger in their mouth along the gum lines and in the cheek muscle promotes tongue lateralization because the tongue will naturally move toward the area of the mouth that is receiving that input.

Tongue lateralization is crucial for finding food and is necessary for your baby to be able to move that food successfully within the oral space.

Getting in your baby’s mouth to work on these oral movements can decrease tension, improve awareness and movement, and help parents be more aware of what is going on as well.

If you need more support here, be sure to check out the Oral Movement guide through The Feeding Mom website.

If there is excessive gagging that doesn’t improve, meaning after incorporating the things above and providing multiple introductions to the same texture, there is no change or your baby is consistently vomiting from gagging, we would encourage a feeding assessment.

3. My baby takes big bites of finger foods

Offering bigger-sized foods when starting solids is recommended because it allows your baby to be in control as these bigger pieces are easier for them to pick up, hold, and bring to their mouth.

It also eliminates the choking risk that smaller bites can present. Larger foods give the opportunity to break the food down before swallowing, whereas smaller foods are more likely to be swallowed whole, increasing the choking risk.

Taking big bites can look scary. And sometimes, those bites lead to gagging or spitting food out. However, both of these are okay when learning how to manipulate solids.

How to help your baby learn to take smaller bites

Option 1: Use your finger as a “mark” when holding the foods for them to bite into. They will only be able to go up to the level of your finger, and this can help teach them what is “bite-sized”.

The downside to this option is that you have to hold the food for them, and if your baby is ready to self-feed, we want to encourage that as much as possible.

Option 2: Mark soft finger foods with your fork. When they feel the food in their mouth, they will gravitate to those marks naturally and bite in that space.

For example, use a fork to mark a banana where you want your baby to bite. When your baby puts the piece of banana in their mouth, they will feel those marks and naturally bite down there.

4. My baby stuffs their mouth with food

Mouth stuffing is very common and has multiple endings. They could…

Spit the food out.
Sit with it in their mouth until you help.
Slowly manage it until it’s finally swallowed.

Your baby may even manage larger pieces perfectly fine and without distress; however, all of their bites are “stuffed” and they have a harder time managing food when the size is smaller.

When we hear that mouth stuffing is happening, we immediately think of possible sensory explanations. Typically this involves them needing some support to find or feel the food inside their mouth more quickly.

It’s not that they aren’t sensing the food at all, but by the time they receive that sensory input that provides feedback about the food in their mouth, their mouth is already completely full.

We need to find a way to help them notice the food earlier and encourage them to chew and swallow it before adding more to their mouth.

How to help your baby through mouth-stuffing

Offer smaller portions upfront until they learn. Wait for them to swallow what is given before giving more.
Put ice in the water or milk that you serve and offer small sips in between bites. The coldness will offer a new sensory input and increase their oral awareness. Remember that oral mapping we talked about earlier.
Consider the flavor or spices in your baby’s food. Of course, we aren’t speaking of “hot” spicy but other bold spices like cinnamon, garlic, ginger, etc. The more flavor there is to the food, the more aware they will be of the food in their mouth.
Give visual cues after they take one bite, with you demonstrating big chew and swallow patterns for them to imitate.

5. My baby chews but won’t swallow

Usually, babies who put food in their mouth and chew but don’t swallow are comfortable with exploring and feeling food inside their mouths (so it’s not necessarily a sensory issue).

But the question is…do they not have the connecting motor plan required to initiate a swallow, or do they not yet understand the purpose of solid food?

When the motor plan is in question, we’re looking at their ability to transition food from being in the oral cavity to a swallow motion down their throat. Teethers dipped in puree or a pre-feeding spoon with smooshable solids (think phase 1 on the Texture Timeline™) are very helpful with this.

These options support the munching pattern because they still have some substance to chew as opposed to phase 0 (ie. very thin purees). They will also encourage a swallow because it is an easy texture for most babies to handle, both of which will help develop the motor plan or sequence.

When it’s the purpose of solid foods that is in question, we have to consider the timing of meals. Building purpose helps the body understand why they are doing something.

If they are full when they engage with solids, they would consider solids like they do any other teether or toy – just for fun. They will use it for exploration, but swallowing would require the need for satiation or fullness.

Therefore, looking at their schedule and allowing a larger gap between milk feeds and solid meals will help to ensure they’re coming to the table hungry and can link food with the feeling of becoming full.

Read more about setting up a feeding schedule for your baby between 6 and 12 months of age.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed about starting solids, maybe you’re scared your baby won’t be safe, maybe you don’t know what to offer after purees, or maybe you just prefer a step-by-step approach with an expert leading the way.

Whatever the case, our free workshop will leave you feeling prepared and with an understanding of what you should do next.

We teach you all about our signature Texture Timeline™ that allows you to start solids the way you want to and gradually advance from there so your baby is always developing their oral motor skills (including chewing skills). We also talk about starting solids myths, what to do about gagging, and more!