Amanda Kyle, MA, CCC-SLP
When we are ready to see our kids eat orally, we often are so excited to see anything go into the mouth, we don’t give much thought to what it is. And while it is true that there is a place for all foods in a balanced and healthy diet, while weaning, caregivers need to introduce foods that a child can sustain themselves on as we remove nutrition from the tube. So, when we are beginning to gear up for a wean from tube feedings, we have to add the thought ‘Are these foods weanable?’
Here are a few considerations to make when you think about weanable foods:
1. Consider the carbohydrates:
To the disdain of toddlers everywhere, you cannot sustain on dry crunchies alone. In fact, dry crunchies can sabotage a wean because they are designed to make you want to fill up on them, but have very little substance. New eaters also love them because they are easy to eat and predictable. But, these foods just aren’t weanable. Instead, we want to focus on offering foods that contain the most ‘bang for your buck’. This means offering foods that are:
Easy to eat
Tasty
High calorie
So when it comes to carbohydrates, caregivers should offer these foods in conjunction with other foods so that kids can begin to hit the marks of getting in proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables. That means offering carbohydrates in a variety of different ways, and being very intentional about when we offer those dry crunchies. From the get go, when/if these are offered, always pair them with a caloric dip. If you haven’t yet introduced these dry crunchies, pair them with a dip from the get go so this is their expectation of that food from the beginning.
Luckily, crunchies aren’t the only carb option, so look for lots of different textures and ingredients when thinking about what you want to offer to your weaning kiddo. Toast, bread, pasta, and crackers are all wheat-based carbohydrates, but also all very different sensory and motor experiences. Toast, bread, and pasta are also very easy to add a fat to (i.e. butter, oil),nbefore any other modification or presentation as well. The take away here is this: vary those carbs! Dry crunchies can be your carbohydrate offering sometimes, but be sure to pull in the other great options as well, which give great opportunities for calories and experience.
2. Fruits and vegetables, while low calorie, are still very important in your introductions of foods. These not only provide lots of fiber, vitamins and other nutrients, but they also teach kids a lot in terms of food being variable.
For example, have you ever had a strawberry and it was the most sweet, perfect berry, the next was bland, then next tart? Those are all natural variations that we as adults know how to be flexible with. Kids, however, are still learning how to process all of this sensory information, as well as what variations are expected with different foods (as opposed to commercially prepared foods that are consistent every single time you eat it). Experiencing variability in foods helps these changes be easier when you experience them (so you can say, ‘oh, I got a bad strawberry’ instead of ‘all strawberries are bad’.).
3. Meats are often one of the hardest foods for new eaters, but they are very important to introduce early and often. Making the weanable means changing how they’re presented to make sure they are easy to eat and more accessible to our new eaters.
Casserole consistency is a great rule of thumb with meats (chopped or ground meat with a sauce) as this binds the food together to be easy to eat, but breaks down easily for those immature skills (and without excess fatigue). Also keep in mind that processed meats (i.e. chicken nuggets, meat balls, fast food burger patties) will be easier to eat because the processing of the meat breaks it down (I often call these ‘pre-chewed’ in this context). This is another great option for practicing skills and variety.
4. Offer foods in ways that help to support oral motor development, such as skinny sticks initially, triangles, or spoonfuls (loading for them if needed). With more slippery foods, you can coat these in cracker crumbs as well as to make them easier to hold (less slippery). Some kids do better with bite size pieces they can put in their own mouth or loaded onto a fork. All in all, keep in mind that oral motor skills often match fine motor skills in the hands (as biting and chewing is an oral motor skill), so if a kiddo is able to easily pick up a bite size piece and easily get it into their mouth, then they will likely be able to hand chewing that size piece. If this is tricky, stick to larger pieces they can easily hold and use their hands to manipulate in their mouth.
At the end of the day, all foods have a place in our diets; however, when a child is weaning, we want to make a conscious effort in menu planning to ensure that we are providing opportunities with a variety of foods, to meet all of their needs. The caveat to all of this, however, is this: we do not expect kids to accept a huge variety of new foods right away, but we want to continue to offer these, as well as foods that are currently accepted that can help to meet those caloric and nutritional needs as well wean away from the support of the tube.
Want more recipes to try at home with your growing eater while they are still weaning?
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