How to get a toddler to take small bites?

[MommyJogger]

It's driving me nuts.
DS will take the entirety of whatever is handed to him and just try to shove the whole thing in his mouth to eat it. If it breaks into pieces, he'll pick those pieces up and try to shove them into his mouth too. DH handed him a bagel-style piece of bread and he tried to shove what equated to an entire bagel half into his mouth.
This is not the behavior we model. We're actually really careful to take very small bites in front of him, showing him that we're taking small bites, chewing, and swallowing before we take another.
He'll chew the food around in his mouth until it falls out (and half the time he'll try to shove it back in) or he chews it down small enough to swallow.
When I hand him a whole piece of fruit, he'll take lots of large bites until his mouth is completely full before chewing it up and eating it.
We did BLW from the start and it took him a lot longer than average to start actually swallowing food.
Is anyone else's kid like this? Sometimes I just give him very tiny pieces of food to help him eat, but he'll just pick them all up and put them in his mouth at once, so that doesn't really help at all.
I saw the other day a kid his age eat a slice of bread with small bites and another kid his age take several bites from a sandwich wrap like he'd been doing it for years. So I'm starting to realize that DS just doesn't have the hang of eating age-appropriate hand foods. Help? Suggestions? Is this a "thing" some kids have/do?

 

[CertainTurton]

Hi no advice really as my DD does this too. I think its just a developmental thing and they will grow out of it if we keep modling the correct way. I often just say things like 'eat a bit slower' 'not too much at once' but b=I dont make a big thing of it as it just causes a fuss and its a lot to do with exploring food etc. She is getting better so dont worry, your LO is still quite little.
IMO I think the other babies are quite amazing/unusal to be taking little neat bites of a wrap at that age.

 

[MommyJogger]

Hi no advice really as my DD does this too. I think its just a developmental thing and they will grow out of it if we keep modling the correct way. I often just say things like 'eat a bit slower' 'not too much at once' but b=I dont make a big thing of it as it just causes a fuss and its a lot to do with exploring food etc. She is getting better so dont worry, your LO is still quite little.
IMO I think the other babies are quite amazing/unusal to be taking little neat bites of a wrap at that age.

Thank you for the reassurance! I was amazed at the first kid, but then I saw the second one do it too and my heart sank, thinking that DS must be having a serious problem with food. It was the first time I'd seen another parent just hand their kid something without mincing it into tiny pieces for them. I'm glad I didn't get an immediate wave of posts shocked at my son's habit and agreeing it's super abnormal. That's a load off my heart and mind. Whew.

 

[jd83]

My son does this too. He shoves his mouth full if I let him. I've had to resort to breaking all of his foods into bite size pieces or he will just shove it all in. At least if its in pieces, he can only pick up so many at a time to put in his mouth. The kid loves to eat, what can I say...

Maybe just try breaking his food into pieces for now, until he gets a better grasp on pacing himself.

 

[CT125]

yep mine does this too. I saw him shove an entire picnic/snack egg into his mouth and eat it without losing anything worth noticing a few months back. I keep waiting for him to choke but he never does, thankfully! He's like some kind of one man miracle waste disposal system

 

[Larkspur]

Unless he's choking, I don't think I'd worry. My guy will hold, say, a piece of pasta and take bites, but no matter what size the piece of banana you give him is, that entire piece is going in his mouth. There is no savouring banana, there is only inhaling banana.

 

[jd83]

Unless he's choking, I don't think I'd worry. My guy will hold, say, a piece of pasta and take bites, but no matter what size the piece of banana you give him is, that entire piece is going in his mouth. There is no savouring banana, there is only inhaling banana.

I just busted out laughing at this, because Colton is exactly the same with banana. It's like Minions with bananas.

 

[jenn2282]

my DD does this too. My friends daughter only 2 months older has always taken little bites , kinda jealous lol

 

[August79]

My little girl does this too. I try to keep her food in bite size pieces and then look over to find her hamster cheeked.

 

[sam2eb]

I'm laughing at this coz it's just how my son used to be! Whatever he was eating it was all going down in one go. He used to try and get full slices of toast, whole bananas, sausages in his mouth!

He is 5 this week and tho I can't remember when he stopped it I know it was ages ago!!

Funny kids