What should I do if my baby can't swallow?

Parents need to train their babies in different skills at different stages. Generally, when babies start to add complementary foods, they need to slowly practice swallowing functions. However, many babies still cannot swallow, which makes parents very anxious. In fact, this is probably because the baby is not used to it. At this time, parents can give their children more chewing and swallowing training guidance. After the baby adapts, he will be able to swallow.

From the moment the baby is born, he or she has the instinct to seek out the nipple and suck. Once the baby inhales breast milk, he or she will swallow the milk reflexively. As the baby grows older, the swallowing ability will become more coordinated and improved. The chewing ability needs to develop gradually, but the completion of the chewing ability requires the cooperation of the tongue, mouth, teeth, facial muscles, lips, etc., in order to successfully grind or bite the food in the mouth and then eat it into the stomach. Therefore, chewing ability is an ability that can only be achieved through long-term and frequent practice of the baby's entire oral movement. If parents do not actively train the baby's chewing ability and neglect to provide different complementary foods at different stages, after the baby is over 1 year old, parents will find that the baby cannot chew coarser or harder food because he does not have good chewing ability, which may cause nutritional imbalance, picky eating, difficulty swallowing and other problems. After 4 months old, the baby's sucking and swallowing movements of liquid food have matured, and he can drink milk food smoothly without it flowing out easily.

Symptoms of poor swallowing in babies

First: Many people may have poor swallowing ability. Esophageal diseases may cause difficulty in swallowing. Some people, if they have neuromuscular diseases, may also experience sore throat when swallowing, so targeted treatment is required.

Second: There are many reasons for poor swallowing ability. If some people have diseases in the throat or tonsillitis, it may cause difficulty in swallowing, and sometimes it may cause hoarseness, so patients should go to a regular hospital for examination.

Third: Many people suffer from throat tumors and other symptoms which may also cause difficulty in swallowing, and may also cause a foreign body sensation during swallowing. Symptoms such as swollen tonsils may also cause this phenomenon. The symptoms of difficulty in swallowing are more obvious, so timely diagnosis and treatment are required.

Note: Poor swallowing ability is a relatively common symptom. Some people who have diseases such as dermatomyositis may also suffer from this symptom, so patients should receive effective treatment. If they have occasional difficulty swallowing, don't be too anxious.

Parents should gradually add some complementary foods to their babies when the baby is about four months old. If parents do not train the baby's swallowing and chewing ability, and do not provide complementary foods at different stages, when the baby grows up, the child may not have a good ability to chew food. He will not be able to chew coarser or harder food, which may result in unbalanced nutrition for the baby, picky about food, difficulty swallowing and other consequences.

When the baby is about seven months old, he starts to grow teeth. At this stage, the baby's chewing ability will be better than before. He will slowly use his gums to imitate the movement of chewing food up and down. At the same time, he will have the desire to eat actively. Sometimes when he sees people around him eating, the baby will also want to try it. At this time, parents can provide the baby with more types of complementary foods to cultivate the child's chewing ability. You can prepare some softer noodles, porridge, bread slices, fruit bars and other semi-liquid or semi-solid foods for your baby; when the baby is ten to twelve months old, he has grown 4 to 6 teeth, and his chewing ability and oral movements will be more coordinated. At this time, he will try to crush or bite off the food first, and then slowly perform simple chewing movements. During this period, whether the child can chew food better will also affect the development of teeth. At this time, the baby's complementary food will also change. At this time, the complementary food should be mainly semi-solid or solid food, such as: vegetable porridge, steamed eggs, noodles, etc.; when the baby is about one year old, he can slowly eat adult food, and will become more and more adept at using his teeth. During this period, the baby's imitation ability is strong. Parents may wish to do some demonstration movements, teach the child to chew the food more fragmented, so that he can eat the main meal smoothly, provide the baby with some long fruits or slightly harder biscuits to let him get used to solid food.

When the baby is about one and a half years old, you can provide him with the same food as adults. It is best to let the baby learn to eat by himself. You can provide the baby with some toys that train or stimulate oral movements, such as whistles, which is conducive to the baby's language development. Parents should pay attention to their baby's growth and development, but not too much. Do the right things at the right time to provide the baby with a healthy and pleasant growth environment.

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