Listen in as four experienced therapists chat about the challenges that toddlers face with mealtimes. What should we be expecting of 2- and 3-year-olds at mealtimes? What skills do toddlers need to be able to successfully eat? How does their ability to sit up and sit still at the table affect their eating? Are tablets on the table a help or a hindrance? Why do we need to consider family and cultural contexts relating to mealtimes and how do our own sensory preferences affect our children’s mealtime experience? It’s all covered in this episode of Sensory Chat along with some handy tips and reassurance for struggling parents and carers. TRANSCRIPT Lelanie: Welcome to Sensory Chat, my name is Lelanie, I'm an Occupational Therapist and an Advanced Practitioner in Sensory Integration, and I'm calling in from Germany. Amy: Hi, I'm Amy, I'm a Speech and Language Therapist and an Advanced Practitioner in Ayres Sensory Integration, and I'm calling in from Salisbury in Southwest England. Angela: Good evening everyone, I am Angela and I'm calling from Melbourne Australia. I'm an Occupational Therapist and an Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner. Emma: Hello from me, I am Emma, I am a Physiotherapist and also an Advanced Sensory Integration Practitioner. And I'm calling in this morning from Warwickshire. Lelanie: Our topic today is Toddlers and Eating. And I'm able to hand over to Amy now to set the scene for our next discussion. Amy: So, what we're thinking about in this episode, is really sort of looking at two year olds heading into three year olds around mealtimes. So that's often a time that parents talk to me as being particularly challenging. So, because I'm a Speech and Language Therapist, they're often asking me about a child who won't eat or will only eat a certain, you know, restricted range of foods, but also issues about children not wanting to, or not being able to come and sit with the family at the table, not being able to be part of the family experience of being part of a mealtime. So I think that's what we're going to talk about today. So I suppose to start off with, it would be interesting to have a think about some of the skills that you need in order to sit at the table at two and take part in a meal, have something to eat. So if we think about sort of the motor skills, the social skills, the, the cognitive skills, the language skills that you need to be building in order to take part. So, what do you think, Angela, would you like to, what kind of, if you were looking at a two year old, two to three year old, where would you be looking at their, their motor skills and development? Angela: Yeah, while just listening to you introduce that, I'm thinking, wow, like what a complex task. If we think about all the things that you know, we're asking of little ones during meal times and this idea of trying to break it down and really unpick, you know, each element to try and figure out what might be going on is really helpful, I think. But yeah, so motor skills, I guess, you know, this idea of kids needing to be able to sit upright and to sit still, if we can do both of those, then our hands and our arms are going to be more available to feed ourselves whether that's, you know, using our fingers or having a go at, you know, using a spoon. And so I think thinking about, the size of the tables and the chairs and whether or not it's, it's appropriate for your little one to be at the same table as the family. So I guess thinking about the motor skills, you know, this idea of being able to sit upright at the table, but also sit still, are two really important elements. And so it's thinking about how do we help kids to do that. The furniture, you know, the chair and the table that we use is really important. You know, making sure that the table is not too high, and that, you know, their little arms can come over the top and rest comfortably on the table, but also thinking about some support for their feet. You know, if children have that support under their feet, they're going to feel more grounded. So I think, yeah, the seating and the table height is an important thing to think about. Amy: Yeah. Angela, if I can just pick up on that. So if you think about swallowing, so the back of your throat, the tube that goes down to your lungs for air and the tube that goes down to your stomach for food, in your throat is the same, the same area, the same pipe. And there's a little flap that moves as you swallow to make sure that food doesn't go down into your lungs, you don't choke. Now obviously, as children are learning to coordinate, those are muscles too, they're learning to coordinate that chew and swallow. And that's something that takes some practice and thinking about it sort of in terms of your body's top priority is to keep you safe and keep you alive. That if you're, if you're not stable, if you're not able to sit and feel secure in your sitting or at some level your brain recognizes ...
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24 mins