Is your child having feeding problems? Use the checklists below to see if your child has met his or her feeding developmental milestones.

0-3 months
Drinks 2-4 ounces every 3-4 hours
Generalized mouthing
Makes vegetative sounds
Uses a suckling then sucking pattern
Tongue flat and cupped
Jaw, tongue and lips do not move independently
Feeding is involuntary and reflexive

4-6 months
Feeding becomes more voluntary
Infantile reflexes become integrated
Developing a suck-swallow pattern
Jaw, tongue and lips do not move independently
Easy tongue protrusion occurs when swallowing
Cereals and pureed foods are introduced
Takes 9-10 ounces of food or liquid per feeding at 4-6 feedings per day
Uses a primitive, phasic bite-and-release pattern on a soft cookie (may suck cookie instead of bite)
Munching pattern – tongue moves up and down

7-9 months
Lips show lateral closure, closing tightly at the corners
Jaw movements separate from tongue and lip activity
Lower lip pulls in to remove food
Upper lip cleans spoon
Unstable jaw movements with cup
Begins to show coordinated suck-swallow-breathe pattern
Transfers bolus from side to center of the tongue and from center to the side - lateralization
Recognizes the spoon visually/tactilely and opens mouth to accept spoon
Swallows some thicker pureed foods with tiny soft lumps and moves to soft table foods
Uses simple tongue protrusion or extension-retraction movements
Can introduce cup drinking – inverted lid
Uses diagonal rotary movements

10-12 months
Decrease in up-and-down jaw movements when drinking from a cup
Upper incisors used to clean lower lip
Lip closure while swallowing liquids and solids is common
Uses a well-controlled, sustained and graded bite
Eats coarsely chopped table foods
With liquids, swallowing follows suck with no pause

13-15 months
Suck-swallow-breath pattern coordinated during long drinking sequences
Cleaning movements integrated with chewing
Refining swallowing skills present at 10-12 months
Phasic bite integrated
No longer drools except if teething
Uses smooth and well-coordinated diagonal rotary chewing movements

16-18 months
Move from high chair to booster seat
Movements smoother than at 15 months but otherwise much the same
Minimal loss of food during chewing
Uses external jaw stabilization with the rim of the cup
Can now eat most meats and raw vegetables
Tongue tip elevation used for swallow with no loss of food
Chews with mouth closed

19-24 months
Transfers food rapidly and skillfully
Transfers bolus across midline of the tongue
Excellent coordination of swallowing with breathing pattern
Drinks from a straw regardless of experience
No loss of liquid when drinking from a cup
Able to bite food of various thicknesses
Tongue cleans lip in free sweeping motion
Jaw uses appropriate movement to match foods (non-stereotypic, diagonal rotary, or circular rotary)

25-26 months
Uses tongue to clean the area between gums and cheeks
Demonstrates oral motor skills to independently eat foods from all food groups
Demonstrates oral motor skills to drink independently from cup and straw