Episode 309: 5 Airway Health Tips for Children with Hallie Bulkin, MA CCC-SLP, CMT®, CPFT™

So best tip here, give children firm textured foods like raw vegetables, meats, nuts, things like that to help strengthen jaw muscles. Our jaw is super important and so are the muscles that are connected to the upper and lower jaw and that's what we're talking about when we talk about strengthening those jaw muscles. We want to limit soft processed foods that don't require a lot of chewing because if we're not using those muscles there is a use it or lose it kind of thing going on here. And so it may be fatiguing for someone who's lost those skills, um, who or who never had them and we have to habilitate them like from the get go. Right. So just something to keep in mind, it might be tricky, especially if a child has been on softer processed foods for an extended period of time. It's going to take work to get them to using more or not using but chewing more firmer and textured foods.