Mouth Stuffing

[my_genre]

My son, who was recently diagnosed with Autism, has just recently started a new behavior that I was wondering if anyone has any insight on.

My husband and I have always had to break or cut his food into bite-size pieces when he eats, because if we do not he will just attempt to stuff the entire piece of food into his mouth. This behavior usually results in him choking himself. So obviously, we have become quite viligant about turning everything into bite-sized pieces. We could then offer him these bite-size pieces on a plate or in a bowl and he would proceed to eat without choking (if he would eat at all).

For the last week though, he has been taking these little bites and stuffing as many as he can into his mouth. He will stuff until his cheeks are full and he cannot move his jaw to chew. He then panics until I remove all the food manually from his mouth. He has made himself vomit from this behavior and I am afraid of choking him by sticking my finger in his mouth to remove the food.

So now I am having to feed him bite by bite and he is upset because he cannot control his meal, so I am getting little food in an already picky eater.

Has anyone dealt with this type of stuffing behavior? Any insight would be appreciated.

[Lisa S]

My daughter's speech and occupational therapists told me that in Catherine's case it had to do with the insensitivity of the mouth, that Catherine was stuffing her mouth to actually be able to feel the food in there. The speech therapist said that it involved much more coordination of your mouth and other eating muscles to chew a small piece of food or gum rather than a large piece and I tried chewing tiny pieces of gum myself and I found that she was correct, at least in my case. Catherine would absolutely stuff her mouth even when we cut up her food for her and then she would usually spit out the huge bolus of food herself because she had learned that she would gag and vomit if she tried to swallow it. She still does this even now sometimes, especially with meats or other somewhat difficult to chew foods that have to be swallowed as a bolus but now she gets a panicked look and spits it out and then says, "Too big of a bite!" This was what we always said to her when she used to do it when she was little.

OK here is a maybe crazy idea. What if you put a very few little bites of food at a time on his plate and then put a few more after he eats these? Then he could feed himself, if you put few enough so he could not choke on them even if he did stuff them in his mouth and maybe he could learn. Also you would give him a chance to ask for more. My mother-in-law taught me that trick for picky little eaters and they also did it at my daughter's special-needs preschool. Give kids tiny portions and let them ask for more. If it was an unfamiliar food, sometimes my husband and I would eat it and enjoy it but put none of it on her plate unless she asked for it, then we would give her just a little bit. We did this several times for some things like broccoli and asparagus and she eats a good variety of foods now.

Another thing that might help is a sensory program for his mouth. Does he have any speech issues? Pompeyfan had a Sensory Programme for Walter that was a lot like the one we did for Catherine. It is in this thread:

http://autismtalk.net/showthread.php?t=1366

Actually it is at the top of the second page, in an attached file that you can download:

http://autismtalk.net/showthread.php?t=1366&page=2&highlight=sensory+programme

Of course Walter's issues may be different than your son's, but some of these ideas may still help, and they are organized so nicely. Hope this helps.

Lisa