Hoarding food in cheeks...

LEIGHLOVE09

Another day, another issue. My 16 mos old DD hoards food in her cheeks. Sometimes for an hour when I will force her to spit it out. She typically won't end up swallowing it. She also didn't gain any weight from her 1 year doc visit to her 15 month visit so we have to go back to doc for a weight check in a few weeks. She's not a good eater at all so not only am I battling that but now I can't get her to swallow what she does put in her mouth. At a loss. Has this happened to anyone else???

tamararachel2

DS1 did this. He was a good eater though. My main concern was with choking!! Like PP said, it's all part of learning how to eat. 

jenks999

My son did it for a couple of months and then just stopped doing it one day. I think it's a phase

Faith 21

Yeah same thing with our son with a lot of things he eats. Drives me batty. Though our son is stll good on gaining weight so I guess its not causing trouble there. Good luck on the weigh in.

greyt00

I don't mean to raise any alarm unnecessarily, but if she continues not gaining weight, you might want to get an evaluation for feeding issues / sensory processing disorder.  My older son did this -- had a lot of trouble chewing and swallowing.  I think it's also possible it's a phase, but the kiddos need to gain weight, so if she doesn't stop, I'd get it checked out with early intervention or a private occupational /speech therapist.  Sometimes they lump feeding with speech/motor, at least in the beginning.  Good luck, I hope she comes around.

ashiscute

I second considering if its a sensory issue.  DD has a speech delay and is hypersensitive which means she craves extra oral input.  This means she tends to put things in her mouth, play with her tongue, and hoard food in her mouth.  Her speech therapist said she might not notice the food like we would.  We give her extra strong or spicy flavored foods or foods that take more work to chew and that helps.  It could just be a phase.  

LEIGHLOVE09

Thank you all. If she doesn't gain any weight when we go in for a weight check in 2 weeks then we will be having more allergy tests done and other blood tests. I believe we'd be going to a feeding specialist as well. She talks really well for almost 16 months. She can say just about every word. Not talking in phrases yes but definitely talking. Daycare has said that she has stopped hoarding as much as she was and I've been giving her foods that she doesn't really hoard (pastina, rice, etc) so I'm hoping its just a phase and it's slowly phasing out. We'll see.