I have 2 sons, one is 5 and the other is 17 months old. My 5 year old never had this problem but my 17mo is a different story.
My 17mo son has been doing this for the past few months. My wife and I cut up his food into small portions and we are still having the same problem. He will put food in his mouth, chew it a bit and then put more food in his mouth. He does this until he eventually vomits all of the food he's eaten so far.
My wife and I have done several things to try and circumvent this behavior; sometimes it works for a little while and then it stops. We've tried cutting up everything so that it is very small and let him feed himself. Once he was doing very well with that, we made the food sized larger and larger as he progressed. Now we are back to square one with the food; now we're having to cut it up very small again.
He does this for lunch and dinner. How have any of you had success stopping your child/children from doing this?
Update: I don't see how to add a response, so I'll just edit my question. We've been feeding him foods that he absolutely loves to eat (fruits, some veggies, pasta, just to name a few). My wife and I have been trying to only give him 2 pieces of food at a time and this has worked very well for us. We've been in and out of the seemingly circular phase where we give him a few pieces of food at a time and eventually grow past it (where he can have a full plate in front of him) and then we'll get back into back only putting a few pieces in front of him at a time. Anybody else experiencing this type of cyclic phase?
you dont say what foods he is eating.it may be he dont like what he is served and he is trying to get the food down to please you.strange that he would do this.i never heard of this before.but i have seen parents try to force kids to eat certain foods by using force and its a bad thing.it could be physicologiical.needs a dr it seems in this case.lots of luck C. s
My son did this too but I was able to resolve it by giving him yogurt before his meal. I buy the danimal drink yogurt and sometimes freeze them before giving it so that he has to take his time with it. Anyway, it put something in his belly before the solids were given helping him to take his time. You can also allow him to watch a cartoon while eating and this tends to distract them from eating so fast. Not a typical suggestion but you do what you need for your child, everyone is different. He also had the bad habit of sticking his fingers in his mouth and vomiting but I just consistantly told him how gross it was till he stopped on his own. You might want to have his digestive track checked by your doctor, sometimes eating habits are signs of other problems. My son turned out to have intersucception and there is no known cause or major symptoms till its become serious. You just never know...
Hi, P.. I have not had this problem specifically with my son, but the only time I ever had problems with him throwing up at the table were when we had conflicts over food (trying to force him to eat things and certain amounts of food when he wasn't willing) or when the family had fights at the table over other things.
I suspect if this is a behavior that he did before and he stopped, that the reason he's doing it again is for attention. If he's not getting enough positive attention at other times of the day, then he certainly can turn on the bad behavior and get everyone to notice him at the table.
My mother, God rest her soul, claimed that one of my older sisters would purposely vomit at the table to cause a huge bad scene when she was angry at my mother.
I agree that you're going to have to go back to the earlier discipline of giving him very small amounts of food in small pieces. In addition to this, I think you need to make sure that he gets plenty of attention at times when he's totally away from the table. Make sure that he gets loving attention and play time with parents and with the older brother.
In the meantime, I would also spend some quiet time with him to try to draw out of him what might be bothering him. Something might have happened at school that triggered this behavior again, or he might even have some conflict with his older brother. We always seem to assume that the youngest child gets all the attention, but I myself was the baby of the family, and I was forgotten about all the time.
BTW, make sure your little one doesn't watch any disgusting movies where people vomit for laughs. Animal House is one of those movies; some of the videos in the Jackass genre are similar. Even cartoons can show people vomiting while the kids are supposed to laugh at them. It makes no sense to me, but it seems that everything that comes out of the body is funny to young kids.
I hope everything works out for the best and you always have peace at your table.
Blessings,
Syl
in my opinion, it's always best to check out the medical before going further...
so I would get the pediatrician to recommend a Licensed SLP for your son and get a Swallow Study done. why not? this way a PROFESSIONAL will look at and study/observe exactly HOW your son is swallowing and what exactly is going on.
Chances are, that everything is normal!
But I would check it out...
maybe it hurts to swallow? maybe he has Esophogeal Thrush? Maybe his tonsils are enlarged???
who knows? a MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL is the one to help:)
Hate that. Mine did this for a while, until I started putting my hand over the remaining food on his plate and telling him "one at a time", then removing my hand when he had chewed and swallowed what he had in his mouth. He still forgets sometimes, but it has gotten a lot better.
My son does this, too, from time to time still... he did it more frequently when he was younger.
Don't put all your son's food in front of him at once. Put two or three pieces down and wait until he has chewed and swallowed it before you put any more down in front of him.
(My son also shoves his hand so far down his throat that he makes himself vomit.) Hope your son doesn't do that!
Good luck... as he gets older, you'll be able to talk to him about the behavior, but he's still too young. Just reinforce, "Chew your food. Swallow." Eventually he'll pick up on that, too.
T. Mommy to Matthew 21.5 months
(and to Katelyn, 46 months ~ who never had eating issues like her little brother! LOL)
Only give him 1 bite at a time. Don't even put more food on his plate until he swallows the first bite. Apply some natural consequence discipline. If he eats dangerously (stuffing until he throws up) then no more food for an hour. A child in America won't starve or be permanently damaged if he misses 1 meal. It is your responsibility to teach him how to eat safely and appropriate. Let him know who is in charge.
why don't you try putting only a spoonful helping at a time on his plate until he chews it and swallows it, and then put another spoonful, so that he never has an opportunity to stuff his mouth? my nephew would shovel his food in his mouth also.
Hello P.,
I wish I had an answer, my 3yr does the exact same thing since he was about your son's age. We still cut him food up and serve in small portions at a time. He will eat until he is sick or keep eating even if he is full. I hope you get some more productive answers then mine, but atleast you know your not alone and we are also going threw the same thing with out a solution.
My 4 year still keeps doing this!!! The only thing that works it to give him smaller portions, not smaller bites. Give him only 3-4 pieces at a time and don't give him any more until he has finished chewing and swallowing. Be glad that he is vomitting it up though, it means he has a good gag reflex, the alternative is him choking on all the food. Hopefully that will never happen!
Nice to hear from a Dad...
Perhaps give your son one piece at a time, instead of a plate full.
Once he chews, then he gets another piece. At this age, it's still a good idea to cut up the food.
Hope this helps.
