This will stop their tongue protruding forward and will facilitate lateral tongue movement, which is required for chewing. When your baby feels touch to the side of their gums where their molars will develop, their tongue will automatically move to the side of their mouth. Place the food at the side of their mouth.Which will in turn support their tongue to be positioned correctly in the mouth. If you feed your baby with a spoon be sure to sit at their eye level, keeping their head and neck in a neutral position.The highchair should have a correctly positioned tray and a footrest. This means their body is at a 90-degree angle at the hips and knees. Having a stable body will support your baby with the fine movements needed to develop their oral motor skills. Make sure your baby is sitting well supported in their highchair.The digit sucking can be hard to break but if you are able to remove it from your baby’s mouth when you see them sucking that is a start. This is the same if your baby sucks their finger or thumb. If your baby has a dummy it’s time to ditch it as it will encourage forward tongue movements.Here are my tips for weaning with a tongue thrust reflex. If you try again and your baby is heading towards 7 months and showing all the other developmental cues (see blog) then you can begin to wean regardless. So what to do? Managing the tongue thrustĭon’t panic! Stop and try again in a week or so. However in some cases the tongue thrust remains, raising questions as to when and how to proceed with solids? Or the gag reflex is very much present and very pronounced. So in theory as you start weaning, both the tongue thrust and gag reflexes should be diminishing. when offered food on a spoon they do not instinctively push it back out with their tongue. Amongst other developmental readiness cues, it is recommended that your baby has lost their tongue thrust reflex. This is dependent on your infants’ readiness for oral feeding. The UK NHS guidance recommends that introduction of solid foods begins at around 6 months of age. By around 9 months gagging will be triggered by touch to the back section of the tongue rather than farther forward. In infancy, touch to the mid section of the tongue causes gagging: it gradually moves back in the mouth from 4-6 months. The gag reflex is designed to protect your baby from choking. It is usually present until between 4-6 months after which is gradually fades. This movement may push food out of the mouth at the start of weaning and is a sign that your baby is not quite ready for solids. The tongue thrust reflex is stimulated with touch to the lips or tongue causing it to stick out. The first is the tongue thrust reflex, which slightly confusingly has other names too such as extrusion reflex or tongue protrusion. You might have heard of two of these reflexes specifically in relation to weaning your baby. The gagging and swallowing reflexes adapt or mature and stay with us for life. Or they disappear, as they are no longer required. As your baby grows these reflexes either integrate to become movements that your baby controls more actively. Infants are born with a number of oral reflexes that facilitate safe and effective feeding from birth.
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