Since I met Sefan in Ethiopia she has always been a VERY LOUD eater. She smacks her lips louder than any person I have ever met....which unfortunately is a HUGE pet peeve for me....but in this case it led to an interesting find.
As i have talked about before Sefan had SEVERE tooth decay that required extensive dental work to repair her teeth and relieve her of severe pain. What I didn't realize was that the pain had caused her to change her eating habits to avoid the pain caused by her teeth while eating. Last week when i was working with her to try to help her keep her lips closed during eating I put my hand on her lips to feel and noticed that she was not using her teeth at all. She was essentially smashing the food with her tongue against the top of her mouth and making a loud sucking clinking sound to help pummel the food. This eating behavior worked well in Ethiopia since most of the food are very very soft (injera, a soft bread and wat, a soup). However, here in America where crunchy reigns this technique is not helpful. So this week we have been trying to relearn using your teeth to eat. While eating I try to remind Sefan to move her food to the side of her mouth to chew then to the middle of her mouth to swallow. She is making progress but it is slow as can be imagined. Eating is something we do unconsciously and it takes a lot of effort to reteach something that basic.
But she is a trooper for the most part and will say " see mommy, I chew on side, then swallow"...sometimes she will hide her face from me though when she is tired of trying to eat properly because it takes so much concentration.