01/12/2026
What to look for during meal times with your child?
Here at Family Tree Therapies our Occupational Therapists and Speech Therapists are here to help!
Keep an eye on:
☀️your child's slouched posture,
🤷♂️needing water to clear food from their mouth,
🫠 open mouth chewing, and their tongue peeking out while swallowing.
Let's go for:
90/90/90 seating = Feet flat = core stability = Stable body = calm nervous system. When your child is sitting upright with good support, food can move along the natural eating and digestion pathway — from the mouth, down the throat, and into the stomach — safely and smoothly. This posture helps the tongue lift, lips close, and swallowing work efficiently, which reduces gagging, coughing, and mealtime stress. Open mouth chewing and their tongue peaking out may signal an inefficient swallow pattern. This means your child is pushing their tongue forward instead of up when they swallow. This makes eating harder work, can affect speech sounds, and may change how the teeth and mouth grow over time. It doesn’t usually go away on its own, so therapy helps retrain the mouth to make meals easier and more comfortable.
Reach out today for a complimentary phone consult or to schedule your eval today!
