My almost 4-year-old won’t bite his food. He doesn’t seem to know how to. If given a large piece of food, he will try to stuff the whole piece in his mouth or won’t even try to eat it because of its size.
For instance, when given a full cookie, he doesn’t bite it. Instead, he will either try to put the whole cookie in his mouth or just look at it and, as he seems to know that it won’t fit, push it aside and not eat it. Sometimes, he gets upset and wants it broken into smaller pieces so he can eat it. We have tried to help him but he just doesn’t seem to get it. He is a good eater and has no trouble chewing or swallowing.
We do eat as a family, but he doesn’t model after the adults and he won’t bite even soft foods. We repeatedly demonstrate how to bite to no avail. He has never attempted to bite anything, we believe it isn’t his teeth. He is also slow to talk and has been having speech therapy since he was 2 1/2, so even though he is communicating more he is still delayed.
How can we help him learn to bite food into smaller pieces he can then eat?