Biting Soft Foods

Hi, this is Whitney's mom. I want to talk about Whitney being scared of biting into soft foods. She really has a hard time with sandwiches. We believe it is the soft foods, but also we think it is scary for her to bring something so big to her face. Every time we bring the sandwich to her mouth she backs away. Because of that I have always cut up her sandwiches into bite size pieces. I've just recently tried getting her to try biting larger pieces again. 

Big surprise she still won't do it. So I started to cut the sandwiches into long skinny strips. She has been more willing to let me bring them to her mouth. The only thing is she doesn't really like to bite into it. I tried to help her close her mouth by pushing up on her jaw, but of course she doesn't like that. 

So I tried cutting a bite of it half way through. That seemed to help. I just explained to her that she needs to bite down. At first she didn't want to do it so I tore the bread so only a little piece of it was hanging on. Then I let her bite it of and praised her for doing it. (She will do anything for praise.) After each bite I cut a little bit less and she is starting to do better with it. 

It's amazing how this is such a simple act for us, but is so scary for Whitney. She has always battled with eating issues, but I've tried not to push her to hard. In fear that I will make her hate eating time. But as long as she is tolerating it. I will keep working with her.