My two-year-old keeps food in his mouth for long periods of time and spits it out when we aren't looking. Recommendations?

whoa… there’s one I’ve never heard before.

I have no idea. But good luck!

There are three themes I seem to be finding online (I was curious so looked it up):
1. It is normal and called the “chipmunk phase”.
2. It is a swallowing issue that should be checked out by doctor.
3. It is a speech development issue (somehow related to this behavior but seen this mentioned several times).

Another idea that I came across was that perhaps the child feels the need to clean their plate so just puts the food in their mouth even if they are full.

What is it that you object to exactly, the holding, or the spitting? I can’t see that it is worth a battle to get your kid to stop holding food in his mouth, when soon enough he will tire of it and move on. The bigger a deal you make of it, the longer it is likely to persist.

Spitting on the floor of Grandma’s house is, however unattractive and unbecoming, and it may behoove you to teach him to use a napkin.

Last night:
“You need to either swallow or spit it out in the garbage.”

He chose option 3, spit it out on dad.

I’ve got only two ideas on this one. Are you feeding him foods he doesn’t really like? Or are you trying to get him to eat more than he’s comfortable with? Who controls what he is eating? Possibly if you put his food on a tray or a plate and let him take what he wants, he won’t do this. It’s also possible that this is just some weird, passive-aggressive two year old thing to get attention and he will eventually grow out of it. Not fun!

@phoenyx Sounds like it is a control issue.

It is foods that he likes. In the grandma’s house story, he asked me for a bite of my burger, which I gave him, which he stored for later.

WTF????

Slap him each time he does.

I’m not the best with kids, can you tell?

@pdworkin
My objection is to piles of chewed food randomly scattered around the house.

Current plan is to ride it out, but I’m curious what the collective’s take on it is.

My granddaughter has various food issues, this is one of them although I don’t think she’s done it for that long!! She had a hemangioma under one eye, which she had to be on steroids for as it was big enough that it was putting pressure on her eye. She was checked out by the dr. for having issues w/chewing & swallowing, & they think she may have had another one, under her tongue. Apparently the tissue under the tongue (the bit under the middle) is not quite right & affects her ability to chew: also, her tonsils are very large so she has trouble swallowing.
This is all a very long-winded way of saying, maybe there is a physical problem.

@phoenyx That is a very reasonable objection, and, as I said above, he should be taught to use a napkin or the garbage pail. The other issue does not seem to be worth the battle.

I would first check it out physically with the doctor. I agree with @ccrow that there may be something physical behind it and not just a behavior problem.

@RedPowerLady It seems to me we medicalize everything in our society, and not necessarily to our benefit.

@pdworkin It can’t hurt to get it checked out. If the kid has a swallowing or speech issue it would be worth knowing about.

However I do agree with your point in general. I just prefer to be “better safe than sorry” when it comes to children’s health. Now if the doctor assigned some random label to the kid then I would likely research it and see if it was an issue of overmedicalizing or not (i do that for everything anyway, lol).

Duct tape will fix anything ;P

I think others have something when they say it’s probably part of a toddler’s experience with power/control. Give him options on where to spit, irritate him with shadowing/following until he finds it’s more comfortable to spit the food where he’s been told or to just swallow it. He probably fascinates himself with this and isn’t aware of the time passage.

Ugh, thankfully my son doesn’t do this. He just straight up refuses to use a potty and will pee next to it. Nice.

I would think it’s just a phase, especially because of the ultimatum you gave him. Let it ride out for a bit. I’m sure it’ll be over soon.

Hahaha, I thought it was just my grandson who does that. None of my other sons or grandsons ever did it. He saves his last bite (inside his month) so he can give it to the dog.

There could be a gazillion books written about weird stuff 2 year olds do! I agree with everyone above because it’s damn sure there’s no real answer for this! I would ignore it so he doesn’t get any attention for it. Clean it up without saying anything for a week and see what happens.

My immediate thought was duct tape. :)

How many months is he? On the lower end of 2, its nearly impossible to reason with a child. On the higher end, you might be able to talk to him and ask why he chooses to do this. My second first thought was that maybe he doesn’t realize he’s full until he gets the bite in his mouth and then he doesn’t know what to do with it. Or that he thinks he’s full, but doesn’t know, so just to be safe… Who knows. I guess I’ll wait on how old he is in months before coming up with my next theory/suggestion. :)

Holding food in the mouth for extended periods can cause dental problems even with twice daily brushing,

@phoenyx I was thinking this morning how easy it is for those of us with kids in their 20s to say, “Don’t sweat the small stuff,” but it’s all small and it’s all big when they’re young and you’re going through it! Just try to realize this problem won’t last. You have my sympathy and keep talking to us if it helps.

I am curious if you found out what was going on with your son? My son does the same thing. Was your son talking at the time? My 2 year old still doesn’t talk. It is not a stubborness issue though. You can tell he wants to talk, but can’t put it together. He still doesn’t say mama. Anyway, he also spits his food out. It is like he doesn’t know how to chew it though. I have been reading about Child Apraxia which is a condition where they can’t quite say what they are thinking and feeling. They may also have troubles eating because the brain isn’t quite telling the mouth the order of which to do things. I am waiting to hear form a speech pathologist but was curious if your problem is resolved now year later, or if you’ve found anything out. Thanks alot.

Hi my son is 1.5 years old n he can have his chunky food in his mouth for next several hrs and keep on chewing…You can even find that bite after his 2hrs nap inside his mouth..I won’t say he has swallowing problem because he can easily chew & swallow grapes cherios crackers chips or saucy pasta (like pasta in milk) and lentils OR the same food he is chewing over for several hours..Also he talks too much and most of his words are very clear..The only thing he can eat is either its pureed or v small chunks in liquids like white sauce with extra milk so he can directly swallow it..But when it comes to chewing part and then swallow its a big NO ..I wonder how can he eat chew and swallow few of the things..Believe me I tried so many diff varieties of food that one can not say” to try other things, may be he doesn’t like the taste”...HELP ME please I cant not see him eating jar food in preps :(