Swallowing is a very complex motor process that moves food from the mouth to the stomach through the esophagus. In early infancy, the swallowing mechanism is infantile. That is, the child swallows with the tongue, which rests on the lips. And when his milk teeth erupt, his swallowing becomes somatic. In this case, the tongue should connect to the anterior third of the hard palate. But sometimes children have trouble swallowing, that is, they get stuck at the infantile stage.
Instructions
Step 1
Reasons for inability to swallow:
- prolonged sucking on the nipple;
- late inclusion of solid food in the child's diet;
- late eruption of deciduous teeth;
- short frenum of the tongue;
- mouth breathing.
Step 2
Use short nipples for feeding your baby that do not cover the baby's entire mouth and do not touch the pharynx or soft palate. In this case, the hole in the nipple should be small. Since when a large portion of food enters the child's mouth, he is not able to swallow it immediately and regulates its flow with his tongue. This misalignment of the tongue creates difficulty in swallowing.
Step 3
If the child has adenoid growths or chronic tonsillitis, then this may cause the baby's tongue to move forward. Follow your doctor's orders to help rid your child of any existing medical conditions.
Step 4
If the child does not know how to swallow, this may be due to the fact that the parents, when their first teeth appeared, did not introduce solid complementary foods into the diet. Hence, in order to learn this skill, the muscles of the child's tongue need regular training. Let your baby chew solid foods as often as possible: dryers, bagels, crackers, meat, apples and carrots.
Step 5
Play tongue games with your toddler. First, show him how to lick lips: open your mouth and make circular licking movements with your tongue on the lower and upper lip. Then teach your toddler how to reach the tip of the nose and chin with the tongue. And then show your baby how you can stroke your palate with your tongue - moving from the teeth to the throat. And then, together with it, "clean" the inner part of the upper teeth with the tongue, moving left and right.
You can also count each tooth by resting on the tongue. Teach your child to click with the tongue as a horse running. Then place a drop of honey on the tip of the child's tongue and ask him to move him back and forth. Now show the baby the game of balls: that is, inflate your cheeks with the baby and push the tongue against the cheeks alternately.
Step 6
Learn to gargle your baby's throat first with thick jelly, then with kefir, then with liquid jelly, and then with mineral water.
Step 7
Place the pencil across the teeth and do the following with the child: with the tip of the tongue, reach below the pencil, then above. Also, place a crumb of bread on the tip of your tongue and close your lips so that the tongue is visible outward. And teach your child to swallow saliva without opening your lips or moving your tongue.
Step 8
Play all games with your child systematically, repeating them as exercises. Start with 5-6 repetitions once a day. Then increase the frequency of games up to 2 times a day, and then up to three times. Gradually add the number of exercises to 10-12 repetitions.
