Eating, Drinking and Swallowing
Speech and Language Therapists have a role in assessing children with Eating, Drinking and Swallowing difficulties (EDS).
If your child is persistently coughing, gagging, changing colour or has watery eyes when eating or drinking, please contact your local speech and language therapy department.
Some children can be very sensitive to new tastes and textures and have an extreme reaction (such as repeated gagging or spitting food out to avoid swallowing) when presented with something new. It is a normal pattern of child development to refuse new foods when first offered them. These children would not typically be seen by a Speech and Language Therapist. Here are some things to help support your child with new tastes and textures.
If your child is persistently coughing, gagging, changing colour or has watery eyes when eating or drinking, please contact your local speech and language therapy department.
Some children can be very sensitive to new tastes and textures and have an extreme reaction (such as repeated gagging or spitting food out to avoid swallowing) when presented with something new. It is a normal pattern of child development to refuse new foods when first offered them. These children would not typically be seen by a Speech and Language Therapist. Here are some things to help support your child with new tastes and textures.
- Messy food play (allow your child to explore the feel/smell etc of different textures)
- Pretend play, allow child to hold spoon/cup and feed teddy/dolly
- Don’t force feed your child
- Keep trying new foods; children require lots of tastes before liking new foods
Age Norms
Children discover how to eat and drink at different stages. Below is a guide detailing approximate stages of physical eating, drinking and swallowing development.
