what symptoms and what treatment?

This is one of the main concerns when becoming a parent. At the slightest problem encountered during a meal or with a food, one wonders if his child suffers from an oral disorder. But how to detect it and above all, how to remedy it?

In the child, the speech disorders can be scary, and yet they are much more common than one might imagine. Indeed, according to a study published in 2018 in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, oral disorders affect up to 25% of children with so-called normal development, and 80% of children with a chronic pathology. What worries parents? That their child shuns meals, has difficulty eating and that eating simply becomes a real torture. Fortunately, while certain warning signs do exist, in many situations food-related issues are normal and specific to a child’s development. So concretely, what is an oral disorder in children and how to detect it? What does it mean for the baby and how to treat it? We answer all the questions that many parents often ask themselves.

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What is orality?

First of all, do you really know what orality is? Coming from the Latin “os, oris”, which means the “cavity of the lower part of the face” (ie the mouth), orality therefore affects everything that has a relationship with the latter. Food certainly, but also ventilation, taste exploration, communication or even language.

There are two types of orality: alimentary orality and verbal orality. Verbal orality appears from birth with cries and small sounds, then evolves towards babbling and the first words. As for food orality, it actually begins long before birth, while the baby is still in its mother’s womb. Indeed, from the third month of pregnancy, the child develops the sucking reflex and swallowing. As soon as he is born, he begins to eat, whether it is milk bottles or the breast through breastfeeding. Around 4 or 6 months, the discovery of other foods and textures begins, such as mashed potatoes and then pieces: this is food diversification! It must be understood: these two orality are inseparable from each other.

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What are oral disorders?

In children, the most well-known oral disorders are eating disorders, also called TOA. To sum up, children prone to TOA encounter problems with food, difficulties during meals and may even refuse to consume or put certain foods in their mouths. Meals are then no longer a moment of pleasure. Food orality disorders are very often accompanied by sensory disturbances (touch or smell for example), but can also make sucking and chewing more difficult. The repercussions can then be significant, in particular concerning the language or psychomotor development.

Moreover, in recent years we often speak of “pediatric eating disorder“, which allows us to be even more precise about all that this implies. The definition of pediatric eating disorder, resulting from the consensus of Goday et al. in 2019 is rather simple and telling: “Pediatric eating disorder is an oral eating disorder, inappropriate for the age of the child, in association with medical, nutritional, oromotor or psychosocial disorders.”. All is said !

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Symptoms of speech disorder that should alert

Of course, it is difficult to make a diagnosis without consulting health professionals. Nevertheless, a few early warning signs can put you on the alert and encourage you to make an appointment:

  • your child explores its surroundings very little through its mouth (he does not put his hands in his mouth or use teething games for example)
  • He has trouble coordinating sucking, breathing and swallowing (especially during a feeding or a bottle)
  • Introducing first foods is difficult
  • Your child is over 16 months and only accepts smooth-textured foodspuree type
  • He frequently has gag reflexes, even vomiting
  • At the table, the meal can be quite long and last more than half an hour
  • When he is over 18 months old, your child eat less than 20 foods. Be careful, however, not to confuse his refusal of certain foods with food neophobia, which is rather healthy and normal in the development of a baby.


In general, you have the feeling that your child does not experience any pleasure in eating. Worse, the meals have become a real ordealsources of conflict and important phases of negotiations, which never end.

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What to do in case of oral disorders?

To succeed in making an effective but above all personalized diagnosis, it is essential to consult a health professional trained in oral disorders. First, make an appointment with your general practitioner or your child’s pediatrician. The latter will be able to provide you with a prescription, redirecting you to the appropriate person. And if we automatically think of theSpeech Therapist, be aware that other professionals such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists are increasingly trained in TOA. On average, it takes between 1h30 and 4h to complete a oral assessment. And if your child’s speech disorders are confirmed, the ideal remains that the various professionals who will accompany your child can work together to ensure comprehensive care.
To help the child overcome his orality disorders, health professionals will try to make him aware of his orofacial sphere, his mouth, but also his breathing, all with the help of games. for example. But as a parent, you also have a very important role to play: you immediately become a partner in this comprehensive care. So on a daily basis you too can help your child deal with his speech problems. Here are some leads:

  • Involve him in the preparation of the meals! In particular by making him touch the food and thus giving him additional motivation to taste the dish he has prepared with you.
  • Do not hesitate to offer your child foods that inspire, are fun and have a variety of textures.
  • You can also offer him more regular teething games and other chewing games, such as toothbrushes with silicone bristles (this allows you to explore the mouth, massage the gums, tongue and sometimes even the palate).
  • Bet a lot on role-playing games that will allow your child to project himself, such as the dinette, or feeding his baby.


Finally, the most important thing when a child suffers from oral disorders is above all to put the notion of pleasure back at the heart of meals and food. And yes, food is often linked to affect, feelings and sharing! So if oral disorders are not considered as a disease in their own right (we cannot treat them with medication), we can nevertheless give all the cards to our child so that he can live as well as possible with his sensitivities of its own.

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