Food Spitting. Advice?

ToastieSimons · August 2013

DS1 a few months ago starting spitting food out into his hand and putting it back in his mouth. It was around the time we started introducing a lot harder textures to chew and so I figured it was him using his hand to move the food around his mouth.

Sometimes he does it, sometimes he doesn't. However, it's not a motor skill issue. He doesn't do it if he is feeding himself, such as snacks. And it doesn't matter what it is. It's driving me batty. If I'm feeding him breakfast, say pieces of banana off a fork or even ones he's bit off himself, he pushes it out of his mouth, into his hand and then puts it back in his mouth. If i switch to a spoonful of yogurt he does the same thing until he realizes he can't push it back in his mouth because it just runs out of his hand and then he's fine and eats it all.

I've tried taking away his meal for 5 minutes figuring maybe he's not really hungry. That hasn't worked.

And it's weird. It's not a texture issue. He'll do it with some foods and not others. Sometimes he eats scrambled eggs off the fork perfectly fine and other times he pushes it out into his hand. Same with PB&J sandwiches, pasta, mac and cheese, meatloaf, rice cakes, cheese, magic pop, ice cream, yogurt, etc.

It's not a predictable food or texture. Today I held his arms down after I put a bite in his mouth. He moved the food perfectly around, chewed it and swallowed it. All while freaking out that I was holding his arms down.

I'm scared to hold his arms down because we already went through a feeding aversion from about 6-15 months old. And he's a stubborn child, if he doesn't want to do something then he wont'. So I"m afraid of him associating eating with being held down.

Do I just continue removing his meal? Do I offer him something else?

The other problem is we live my parents and Grandma is NOT good about this. She'll get annoyed and take away his plate when she feeds him in her kitchen, but if we're out on the deck it's "oh it's okay he's out side he can make a mess".

I feel like this is one of those things I can't keep encouraging because it makes a MESS. Right now i can't send snack to school that is something he doesn't love because if he spits it all out he'll be a mess. He refuses to self feed with a utensil. He struggles with wrist rotation so we try a fork and he refuses to even hold it. He also refuses EVERYTHING but a bottle.

Do I put him in time out if he does it? I don't think he's cognitively capable of understanding time out or that what he's doing is "wrong". He doesn't understand that climbing off the couch headfirst hurts even though he's done it and cried. Yet, I've taught him how to get off the recliner by rolling over and sliding off and he does that fine.

it's so hard without knowing what he really understands and doesn't understand.

Any advice? Suggestions?

I need a way to stop rewarding this behavior.

Assembly_Reqd · August 2013

I am not sure how helpful this will be. I have not had this problem but I did have a hand in the mouth/gagging problem that I wanted to nip as soon as possible. Nate did it during a eval with and SLP and I asked her how to discourage it. (She also worked at our local autism center) She said not to respond verbally but to take his hand out of his mouth and keep doing it for as many times as he does it. I guess it sort of breaks the impulse without drawing more attention to the behavior. I am not sure how you could modify this for the food. You would need to do the hand holding thing you are already doing without any other reaction. Praise up the times he does eat appropriately, I guess?

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