there's 24 million people with feeding disorders here in the United States. 95% of them are between 12 and 25 and 50% of those meet the criteria for depression. So again, I'm trying to peel back the layers, connect the dots, and go upstream. Mama, go upstream and figure out how you can avoid and prevent your kid from falling off that cliff and being, stuck downstream, holding on a life jacket, eating three foods and wandering around your house when everybody else is trying to sit down and share a meal together. And that's what some people are suggesting. Oh, that's just the new norm. That's the modern world. It doesn't have to be that way. And I'm here to really, really empower you, encourage you, inspire you to stand up in your own power and do it differently. Hello and welcome to Talking Toddlers where I share more than just tips and tricks on how to reduce tantrums or build your toddler's vocabulary. We're gonna cover all of that, I assure you. But here our goal is to develop clarity. Because in this modern world, it's truly overwhelming, especially during these past two years. This podcast is about empowering moms to know the difference between fact and fiction, to never give up, to tap into everyday activities, so your child stays on track. He's not falling behind, he's thriving through your guidance. We know that true learning starts at home and talking toddlers. This podcast. Helps you develop that with clarity, confidence, and clear communication. So let's get started. Hello and welcome back to Talking Toddlers. I'm Erin Hyer, your host, and this session, this episode, we will continue the conversation on how eating and talking are interrelated. A few episodes ago I had mentioned that we actually have eight senses. Um, most of you are very familiar with the five that's hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch. And I mentioned, a sixth one, which is the introception, but there are also two more. So this week I will cover why these three. Hidden senses are really, really important to all of us as human beings, but especially to your baby and your toddler as you're helping them develop and acquire these skills such as eating, talking, playing, listening, learning. All of that and how we can enhance or perhaps identify things that are inhibiting these beautiful milestones. Unbeknownst to you, you don't know what you don't know, right? And so we need to be mindful and open to exploring what could we be doing that. Isn't healthy or isn't helping or supporting growth in a more positive manner. So let's look at the sensory system as a whole. It is our body's gps, think of it that way, where we learn through sight and sounds and exploration. Let me first step back for a quick minute because I don't want any of you to ever feel like you should know this stuff, and so unless you're an occupational therapist or a speech pathologist, or I guess those are the two main fields that really work in this umbrella. Pediatricians are not well informed and early childhood development specialists, they might have a snippet here and there, but let me just kind of step back and give you. An honest perspective of the timeframe. So there was this woman, this researcher, an occupational therapist out in Los Angeles, UCLA actually, and her name is Jean Ayers, and it was well over 50 years ago when she first dove into looking at the sensory systems and how children develop or are. More or less struggling with those early milestones. In the beginning it was about physical development, occupational therapy, and gross and fine motor skills. But she wasn't necessarily well welcomed in the research community or in in therapies across the board. And it took a long time for us as a community, as a culture to really understand what her work was telling us. And so when I entered the field in the early 1990s, this whole sensory processing thing was. Very unfamiliar, and I think, you know, I have always felt like I was blessed being at the right place at the right time where there were a small handful and I can r literally count them on one hand of occupational therapists in private practice, not in the hospitals, and definitely not in the schools. They didn't have any OT services in the, in the school systems back in the 1990s. Um, but because of gene heir's work and the whole, um, information in what parents were bringing to us service providers. But what I'm, what I'm sharing is that I was actually asked to leave some i e P meetings, some school meetings, if I mentioned sensory reprocessing, because they were unfamiliar, they didn't it to them. That was a medical model. It wasn't an educational model, and I had no, no authority speaking that. And so I just want to share the perspective now. Sensory processing is at least better understood and a little bit more accepting in these, in these environments, but it's still. There's still so much to, to peel back and understand, to use in real time. But with that note, sensory processing is really how the brain processes data or information coming into our human body, right? And we are constantly being bombarded with information and we, you know, just think of your little baby when they were born and, and it was completely overwhelming, right? When the, the, the doctor takes a hold of him or her and puts them hopefully on your, on your chest. But the lights, the sounds, the smells, they're leaving this perfect cocoon and being accosted really by our physical world. And we have to help the baby who's still under construction. I'm always saying that here. Help build a processing network. And that's another thing I keep saying that we're a body of networks within networks, right? Systems within systems. And they, over time through your baby's experience, begin to organize and sort and disregard and prioritize and turn on and off. So let me paint a scenario about how our sensory systems, and here I'm going to cover the three hidden ones on another day we can talk about how the five outward ones. Also affect learning and eating and talking and listening and all of these things. But let me paint this scenario. Say you walk out to the poolside of a hotel room and you wanna just relax and read a book, maybe have a cup of tea, you know, ice tea or something. As soon as you enter outside, the hot sun hits you. It's really bright. The, the smells of the chlorine and the sunscreen that you know, you just lathered yourself up with. People are talking, some are laughing. Maybe even kids are yelling and running around, they're splashing going on. You are all of a sudden inundated with new data. Through all of your sensory systems. Then you walk across the poolside, you sit down in a chair, it's kind of itchy on your bum, and you have to lay out a towel and you're starting to settle in and get comfortable with regulating all of this new data coming at you. And you open up your book and you start to read. Um, and you're able to tune the vast majority out of all of this other information so you can focus on what your goal is, is to relax and read this book, even though all of that stuff is still coming into your body, into your sensory systems. And you know, you might sit there for a little while and then you start to feel hot or warm or uncomfortable. You take a couple of sips of your tea that, the cup started to, warm up because of the heat. Then there's condensation. So you feel the wetness on the glass, but you kind of wipe it off and you take a sip and then you go back to reading again. You're adjusting. You then have to, you know, brush off a fly off of your arm, but you still are able to focus on what you're reading, on, what you're, you're trying to accomplish for that task. Right. And then even if someone splashes on you, you can look up, you can smile, you can laugh, and then transition back. And that's all about self-regulation. We do this all the time. When we get in our car and out of our car, we walk into the grocery room or grocery store, we walk into a, a business meeting. We walk into, you know, a basketball game at your kids' local gym. All of these transitions, your body is adjusting. Quick, subtle, and sometimes we're not ready for it, or sometimes I just can't handle it. I know in the past come home from work because I talk for a living and I just want it quiet. And depending on my mood or where I am at my fatigue or my alertness, I will adjust the music. Sometimes I don't want any music. Sometimes I want rock and roll. Sometimes I want jazz, sometimes I want lyrics. It all depends on what I am feeling inside of my sensory systems. So I just wanted to kind of paint that picture. Think of your baby when you're getting them ready to come and eat now. Come on, we're gonna eat whether they're six months old or 16 months old, if you just quickly pick them up. Even if you're sane. Oh, we're going to have some sweet potatoes and green beans and chicken. Your favorite, it's your favorite. You've loved this. And if you quickly pick them up, plop them in the highchair, put the bib on them and throw a plate in front of 'em, that is a sudden change and shift. And they're like, oh my God, what's going on? I, you know, especially if they're only eight months or 10 months, they really don't understand. But a 16, 18, 24 month old who has a teeny, tiny bit of language in the scheme of things, And they've done it successfully numerous days in a row. If the transition is quick and sudden they're not ready for it, then it's acco of to them. So I just want you, mom. Dad, grandparents, caretakers of all sorts, just put yourself in their position, put them, put yourself in their shoes. So keep all of this in mind as I walk through the three hidden senses, and on another session we'll talk more. Deeply or specifically on how the outward senses, outward facing senses, such as, you know, sight, touch, hearing, smelling, and taste. And those are critical too, don't get me wrong. But these three hidden ones, very few people out in the community at large talk about or understand, especially pediatricians, school professionals or even private practitioners, unless you're an occupational therapist. And sensory integration is a special training. Not all OTs do this or understand this, and certainly not all speech and language people. So, I just want to bring it into the forefront, give you a little, uh, definition description of how these three hidden ones, and I mentioned in a previous episode, uh, about interceptive, which is are the internal senses and how our organs will pick up on different elements inside our body and how that affects outwardly. Right. And then there's also proprioceptive and then vestibular. And let me kind of give you a snapshot of each one of these and then just. Bring it into your everyday life and be thinking about how this is affecting your baby, your toddler, and even your, your older kids, right? These are senses that we all deal with day in and day out. This scenario I just painted was an adult. You walking out to the poolside trying to read a book. But it happens for all of us. And at the same time, we have different think of, you know, gradations or think of a long continuum, and we move along that continuum any day, any week, any, uh, differently even throughout the day, right? We're a more alert, we're more in tune with our body when we first get up, then perhaps later in the evening. So just think about how these three hidden senses tell us about our internal body and our emotional states. And that's the key here. So when you're thinking about how can I support. My baby, my toddler, my preschooler, my kindergartner in learning about self-regulation, learning about attention and focus, and being able to transition, whether it's from one task to another, or it's even when I'm in the middle of something like eating or playing with blocks, how can I turn my attention? Listen to what you're saying, like if you're saying, okay, we're they're playing with blocks, and you say, in five minutes we're gonna have dinner, which is the great. Thing to do, right? To give them a little heads up. Five minutes even, you can put on one of those special red clocks that I can share with you, um, and give them a heads up, a warning to get ready to transition. And that all that helps all of us right to, to say, to give a five minute or 10 minute warning. So it's also important to understand how all of these sensory systems also work together and that some can be heightened, some can be depressed at any given time. So, We in my field, like to talk about, um, you know, the heebie-jeebies or the, you know, something gives you the willies, which isn't very, you know, scientific or clinical, but it kind of makes us shutter inside or win. It's like, oh no, I'm not gonna go there. And any time you perceive something that is in this category for yourself, it's because of your sensory experiences and that because there's so much emotion attached to it, then it's embedded in your memory. Your long-term memory. So, and we all have these certain foods will stir up a memory and it could be good or bad, but think of, you know, something that can give you the willies, it could be the texture, the smell, the taste, and really is repulsive and, and can cause a gag reflex. For example, for me it's eggplant. I just can't stand up, can't even, you know, I love the color on the outside, but once you cut it open and no matter how you cook it, I know there's a lot of people with egg pan eggplant parmesan that have, you know, recipes to die for, but it just makes me nauseous inside. Just talking about it right now gives me the willies or the heebie-jeebies. Right? Or somebody on the other side would say, you know, the idea of consuming raw oysters just makes them creep out. I, on the other hand, love raw oysters, so why it can't. Totally be texture. It's something in these memories, whether it's the texture, the smell, and now for children, quite often the more common vegetables that can really make them s shutter or wince or pushback, things like broccoli or green beans. There's something about that memory or that association that they've experienced through their senses, whether it's the sight, you know, it's like, Ooh, no, I can't stand that. The smell, the touch even, and we'll talk about this a little bit later, but even the sound when you're chewing it, because we are getting sound feedback inside our head when we're chewing, and you can do a little test, you know, just cover up your ears and chew gum or chew some chips or chew broccoli and. The sound, the acoustic inside your head because that's bone conduction is going through the bone. Your skull, right when you're chewing and it's much louder inside your head. That's another, that's the reason why when you hear yourself on a recorder that you sound so different. It's because when I talk and I just hear myself in the room that I'm speaking, it's reverberating inside my head, and that's a different. Quality than when I just hear it on the recorder, which is what you guys hear. So there, that's why we typically don't like to hear ourselves recorded. So keep in mind that the sensory system adapts through all of your experiences each and every day, and repeated exposures to new foods are the way that we desensitize. A sensory pushback. Right. And as I've mentioned before and as pretty common knowledge to us, people that are working in this industry, but to the layperson, whether it's a, a pediatrician, and I consider him her lay as it relates to speech and language and early therapy or early intervention, but also to most parents out there, especially new parents, that your baby, your toddler will need 15 to 20 exposures of a new food before they're like, okay, I, I'll, I'll give it a try. I, I've seen it 15 times. Great. Let me, let me give that broccoli a bite and see what it tastes like. And their behavior could be, you know, simply turning. Away. He's like, eh, no, I'm not gonna do that. Or it could be a little bit more intense where they gag without even tasting it, or because of the smell perhaps. Or there could be an extreme outburst or a big, huge protest, and they have a meltdown right there in a nanosecond. And yet you look at that and say, my goodness, three days ago you had broccoli. It was just fine. You don't know what is going on with their sensory system. And they don't have the communication skills to let you know, like, Know that this broccoli tastes or smells, or looks different than the broccoli three days ago. And that's why it's critical that we, the grownups in the room do not overreact because then that gives them knowledge as well as power to push back again when they feel like it. So just keep in mind that you are 18 month old, you're 24 month old, even you're 36. Month old. Your three year old still has minimal language. Even though they should be highly communicative by three, they don't really have the understanding of the effort that went into it or that this broccoli is totally the same food except I cut it up in small pieces and now it looks different. Or I've covered it with cheese, or perhaps I'm not covering it up with cheese. Usually you have broccoli covered with cheese. It looks different, it smells different. It feels different in my mouth. So just keep all of these things in perspective when you are trying to walk your baby and your toddler through these first couple of years of learning how to become a healthy, vibrant eater and also this. Prompted an idea. This is why we and I stress that is really important to get your child involved with the food prep, right? From shopping, to cleaning, to cooking. Again, you can look at the big piece of broccoli. You can even compare it to cauliflower and say, wow, look at these. These are brother and sister. One is green and one is white. They're the same. They're not a hundred percent the same. Like a brother and a sister aren't a hundred percent the same, but they're very, very similar and, and I think broccoli and cauliflower have different flavors. Um, and they certainly have different texture, but they look similar except for the color. But you can help bring this. Upfront and teach them using good, rich language of how to compare and contrast and experience two different foods that are from the same quote unquote family. So let me jump into the three hidden senses that. We are a lot less familiar with. The first one is vestibular. And you may have heard this word before because kids like to spin around and get dizzy, right? It's about that inner ear. But you might ask yourself, how does a sense of balance affect eating? And just keep in mind that the vestibular system is truly the foundation to, for all fine motor skill development. And we've mentioned this before, but the gross motors are course are the big muscles, right? Being able to stand right and hold yourself up your butt, your glutes, your hamstrings, your thighs, right? Your big muscles, your biceps, your triceps, your back, your abs, all of those big muscles. And those are really, really, really important in this development because we need to look at strength of the gross motor skills stability. Of the gross motor skills and coordination as it relates to the foundation for the fine motor. So the fine motor is built upon a very strong, stable, coordinated, gross motor system. And so the vestibular system is located in the inner ear, as I said, and it's a sense of balance and movement. And you're thinking again, how the heck is this related to eating? And it is through gross and fine motor. So you know, ultimately we want your little one to be able to use that piner grip, which is your index and thumb at the tips. Tips where you're picking up. Say a green, tiny green pea without smooshing it, right? Can he pick it up gently and then pop it in his mouth and then chew, right? Um, that's fine. Fine motor skills. And you want to pick it up without squishing it. And you wanna then pull your arm with this little tiny green thing at the tip of your fingers and hit the target. The target is your mouth, and then you need to open the mouth. There's a timing mechanism, right? Pick it up, bring it to your mouth, open your mouth, pop it in, close your mouth and chew. So all of these fine motor skills are about biting, chewing, and swallowing and speech. All of these, and I've mentioned before, we have 26 muscles from our diaphragm up that need these coordinated co articulation. That's what co articulation means, where we string thousands and thousands of sounds together. But that is the foundation, the vestibular system, to be able to find balance right? I have to sit up in my highchair, and we're gonna talk a little bit about this, but I have to have strength and stability. Remember the rule number one rule before you start to introduce solid foods to your baby and plop him in that highchair is that she or he can sit up independently on the floor, that they have enough strength, stability, and coordination. Coordination means that they can disassociate, which means. That they can sit up and stabilize their, HES maybe lean forward, not maybe, but yes, lean forward and reach and scoop up some food and then bring whatever's in their fist, right In the very beginning, it's that Palmer grip. So they're gonna fist the food and not have that P grip with, with the tiny green peas. And they're gonna bring it, track it, motorically motor movement into their mouth. And in the beginning, those first 3, 6, 9 months are gonna be messy. Remember, and I talk a lot about this, the two biggest arguments, uh, is, or fears and legitimately are safety and messiness. And when I talk about all of this, it's really under those two big umbrellas, right? Those two big. Columns, but the vestibular system helps with balance, gross motor balance to sit in that chair. And we've talked a lot about choosing the right highchair and putting them in 90 by four. And, and I'll review that again, that when you place your baby or your toddler in the highchair, and they're gonna grow a lot between that six month and 12 month and 12 month and 18th month, so of course it's going to get better and better and better. But in the beginning, you're going to have to make sure with bolsters and props that that big highchair and you're gonna get a big highchair because you're not going to get one for each and every, Extra two pounds, but you're going to make sure that there's 90 degrees starting at the hips. And one of the things that we always say here is whatever happens at the hips, happens at the lips. little plan words there, but 90 degrees sitting up at the hips, 90 degrees behind their knees, 90 degrees with their ankles. So you need that footrest. And if you need to put a bolster, whether it's a book or a box, With some duct tape. Do that because the flat feet pushing on a footrest is critical to safety, stability, and focus. And that's what we want them to do. We want them to be able to detach and be comfortable in their seating position so they can focus on, on eating. Right. And then the, the fourth 90 degree that a lot of people forget about is the 90 degree at your shoulder and neck. So you don't want them to slide back in their seat. So that would negate the 90 degrees at their hips, but then that would also put them in that compromising position of leaning back, right? Reclining position. And that is not good for choking and gagging or chewing, right? They're learning how to chew and it's through experience and opportunities. So think. About the vestibular system. You know, picture it like this, you scoop your little precious baby off the floor out of the playpen or from Auntie Susie's hands, and now you plop him in to a hard plastic booster seat with her feet dangling. There's no footrest. Um, he's sort of still figuring out this whole torso strength and sitting upright, and he's weaving back and forth and there's, yes, you were. A good mom and you put the, the straps on the buckle, that's critical, critical, critical. But the stability is kind of a hit and miss. They're holding onto the edge of the table or to the tray, depending on where you put the highchair. It's a whole different weird internal sense because now they're sitting upright and that's still a relatively new, um, perspective of the world. Right. They've been lying down a lot. They've been tummy timing a lot. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully. And now this whole sitting up erect and being stable is a different perspective of the world, and the brain is processing visual and auditory information. They're higher, right? They're at the table height, about 30 inches or so, and so it's a whole different. Collection of information and with some of these kids, if the footrest isn't really. Doesn't really allow them to have that 90 degrees at the ankle and, and the stability at the base of their foot that are, that's are still under construction. They're still getting data from there, but it's a very immature foot. But the little toes are bracing hard against the footrest. And if they have shoes on, I hopefully. Hopefully none of your kids have shoes on inside the house. They're not walking anyway, so they shouldn't have shoes on because having shoes or even socks is a mask, is a, a shield that is cutting off their ability to perceive tactile information from that footrest. And that's critical. And now they're, you know, like, okay, okay, I'll, I'll kind of hold myself up here, try to find stability, maybe some, you know, strength in my torso is good enough for a couple of minutes, but they're trying to snag a piece of food. Or maybe you are d you've decided that you're uncomfortable because of the gag or the choking is issues and you're still gonna just spoon feed them cuz it's easier, it's faster, we'll just get some food in them. And. Yet it, it's not working for them. It's, it's acco of, to them, it's uncomfortable. Their sensory systems is on overload. They're on fight or flight. And if they do take a couple of bites, it's they fatigue quickly. So we have to please slow it all down and be thoughtful. Go into their little bodies and into their little minds and into their very, very crude early stage body perspective of this world and, and see how all of this could be accost of to them. And if you think to yourself like, oh my gosh, Erin, this is what I've been doing. It's, it's okay. There's neuroplasticity. You haven't completely broken him. You just may have to step back, slow it down. Let's start again. It's cool, right? Because ultimately, whether they're six months or eight months, or 16 months, or, you know, say you have a two-year-old, you have a full fledged toddler, and you're like, oh, like how? Okay, let's. Let's walk it back and how can we set the stage that it's more supportive and less interference? So keep in mind the vestibular system is about movement in space as well as balance, right? And our goal is for your preschooler, pick up his chicken with a fork. They don't cut with a knife, but they stab it right? And pick up these individual pieces and bring it smoothly to their mouth. Now also the vestibular system. Helps master skills such as eating corn on the cob from one end to the other to be able to hold it on two ends, to at midline, to move your head across bunch bu bite, bite, bite, munch, munch, munch, chew, chew, chew also to hold steady at, uh, taco that's stuffed with delicious textures and flavors and foods and enjoy each bite. Or this is the, you know, I think the cat's meow is to hold an ice cream cone upright and gauge the movement where they can lick it off and not knock it over, or, you know, worse yet, you know, have it fall on their chest or up their nose or other disasters. So this is what the vestibular movement in space with gross and fine mo, um, fine motor skills as well as balance, balance my body. Balance my head and then we'll, we'll talk about some of those balance of those fine motor, like your jaw and your lips and your tongue. And that is all necessary in eating and talking, which lays the foundation for being able to be a good listener and to be able to play games and to be able to attend and focus and transition from one task to another. And all of the, what we call the higher order language based learning things. But keep in mind, mom, dad, grandparents, it takes time to practice these skills and they have to start early six months, hopefully is ideal. And as we help them along, keep these sensory systems in your forebrain. If they're fussy, step back and say What's going on? Maybe they're uncomfortable, maybe, you know, he's sliding too far forward. Maybe, uh, the desk or the, the highchair height isn't working for him anymore and we have to fix it. Or maybe the transition was too abrupt and he wasn't ready to, to change, or maybe he's not hungry and we have to respect that. So always. Step back and look at the situation and build from there. We often use this as an example. If you've ever sat at a, a bar, whether you're ordering a hamburger or having a drink or whatever, but the, the chair is too big for you and it's too high, and perhaps there's no footrest, and your feet are just dangling and the seat's too hard, and it really doesn't snug up against the bar and it's too high. Say it hits. Say you're, you're relatively average, right? You're five feet, or I'm sorry, five, five or something, and it kind of hits in the middle of your chest and you're trying to eat, you're trying to get, have a conversation. You're trying to engage and it's, it's just miserable. That's how babies feel. When we just plop 'em in a highchair and we don't respect the four by 90 s, we don't respect their mood or their transition. They're not ready for it. Or all of these other variables that we just assume aren't relevant, relevant to them, but they are because they're human beings trying to learn how to wire their system, their sensory systems, all eight of them, and at the same job at the same time. Learn how to the, you know, these gross and fine motor skills. So the next system would be your proprioceptive system. And some of you may have heard this term, but I just wanna relate it to your baby, your toddler, your preschooler, and how it affects early eating. Speech and attention and play even. I mean, it, it crosses all areas of life, but you may know someone who's just naturally gifted as a dancer, but you yourself might have two left feet. So proprioceptive is about motor coordination, but it's also about feedback in, um, in our muscles and joints as we interact with the world around us. It's both gross and fine motor and how they're talking and regulating ourselves in whatever activity we're doing. It. It's defined as our own awareness of where various parts of our body are in space. And I jumped into a lot of this sensory system. Again, I was blessed to be part of the LA. Area where it was a pretty early topic in the, in the 1990s, but it spoke to me because when we talk about early articulation and early speech sound development, it's about the jaw and the lips and the tongue and that propioception when I ask a, you know, an older kid, a six-year-old or seven-year-old, to round his lips for the ooh sound, um, or to elevate, to raise the tip of your tongue behind your upper teeth for the tt, the T or the D or the N or the L. And some people pronounce the S with the tip of their tongue up in the Alveola ridge. I do it. In the base of the tongue, but that's another conversation. But, but the point is, is the propriocept shun system, gross and fine is critical to learning how to chew and speak. And then if it's organized, then we can self-regulate. But it's also about the strength. How much effort do I need and how coordinated can I be? Again, for stringing thousands and thousands of sounds together, that co articulation it needs, we need strong muscles, but we also need to know, you know, do I do it softly, like in the pa, pa or do I do it firmly? Pa P there's all a bunch of self-regulation, but in relation to eating, Is that proprioceptive of again, picking up your food? Do I s smush it in the very beginning? Your baby, your toddler will do a lot of smushing. They have to because that's what's feeding literally and figuratively. They're proprioceptive. Loop so they can begin to adjust through trial and error. How much effort do I have to hold this sweet potato or this avocado or this banana that are relatively s smushy if I'm not careful, but can I hold it gently and bring it up to my mouth? And then can I bite and chew with good feedback so I'm not smacking my teeth? Or do I have the coordination or lack thereof where I can't chew it thoroughly and now I'm swallowing it whole or I'm stuffing my mouth with food? All of these variables are regulated through proprioceptive system. So think of this once again as the fine tuning and integrated movements, and it takes practice every single day, and that's why. I'm encouraging each and every one of you to embrace the messiness in the beginning, the first several months, the first several years, but they will get better and better. So you, that three-year-old can sit at the table and can use utensils and his napkin and can adjust his body in this physical space without you having to harp on him or without him getting tired and fatigued and bored and getting off the, the, the seat altogether and then starts to graze. And that's a whole nother conversation. And this brings to mind how I, again, I just wanna connect proprioception. With talking and eating. And so it's about what happens inside the mouth. Once they have the body proprioceptive, once they can stabilize their torso and sit in that chair and reach and use their arms and then use their hands and then use their fingers and they, develop from the center midline out. And same with our mouth, right? And so we can, if we have a stable torso, then we can stabilize our head. And if we have a stabilized head, then we can move our jaw separately, independently. It's called disassociation. And then once the jaw is stable, then we can move our lips and then again disassociated. And then we can move our tongue. And our tongue. And I've mentioned this before because it's, to me, it's quite fascinating, is the only muscle in our body. That has a point of origin. So it's attached at the back of our throat, but there's no point of insertion. Think of your bicep or any other muscle in your body. Both ends are attached and it can, you know, you can flex it or release it, but the tongue has to stabilize itself inside the mouth against other oral parts like your teeth and your palate. You, you know, the roof of your mouth or your gum line, or the floor of your mouth or the tongue itself. So in the beginning, you're six month old and eight month old, they have limited space inside their mouth, inside their oral cavity. And, but the more they work out, and I've mentioned this a little bit, In a previous episode or two, that eating and talking are workouts, right? That we're building strength and coordination, but at the same time, they're leaning out their physical structures. So babies are born hopefully with big, fat, thick cheek pads. And if they're not, then those kids, uh, usually they're preemies or they're other issues in their early development, and that's a different conversation. But in these, in this full term baby, these healthy babies who are six and eight months old, W each and every feeding experience and coing and babble and playful, and laughing and singing and humming, and all of this stuff is building these oral structures. And so the tongue elevation, the retraction, the lateralization, that means going sideways to cl say clear off food on your back molar, or to stick your tongue out and lick your upper lips. Those are all motor. Patterns that we need for biting and chewing, but we also need for speech. So let me give you an example. In order to produce the R, like in red or rocket and in car butter, right? Those Rs, those are two different kinds of Rs. One acts as a consonant in the beginning of a word and one A acts as a vowel. But those American Rs, we need to be able to retract our tongue and lateralize meaning like to clear food off in your back of your molar. If you can do that, then we have enough strength and coordination and internal stability, proprioception. Uh, then we could teach a child how to say the R. And so we know that through the last 30 years of research that looking at the correlation between oral motor planning for eating and biting and chewing and swallowing and speech, these developmental tracks are interrelated. And I know I've said this before, but, but it, you know, for the jaw it's the yaya yas for the lips. It's. The w wa, Wawa or Mamamama, or Bababa or papapa, pa, all those lip sounds. And then we have the tongue, we have the tip of the tongue, right? The T D n L and S, and then the back of the tongue, the G gaga and the like in kitty cat. And then, like I said, the infamous R Americans are, which is, um, acts as a confidant, acts as a vowel, and acts as in blends, right? Like s str R street. That's a lot harder to produce. Not only the s but then the s t r together. And then, um, then we also have sounds like what we call digraphs, which are two letters that make one sound like the s h sh, right? That the s sh. In and of itself requires good jaw height, right? And so that's strength and mobility and stability. We need a stable jaw to then protrude the lips in a pucker light, but they're not closed. They're open so the sound can come out. And then we push the airflow, inhalation act like sh sh, right? And then, you know, there are other sounds, but it's all interconnected. And I just want wanted to give you a little quick map, a snippet of how proprioception inside the mouth starts with actually tummy time. Right, to be able to build that core strength, to be able to sit in the highchair and to be able to then practice through biting, chewing, and swallowing and talking with you because they're enjoying this beautiful meal together. So that's why I'm so passionate about proper eating, introduction and proper family time meals and bridging these two worlds together, that we don't, we can't look at them as separate entities and we can't look at them even as separate skills altogether. Right? Not all kids who have speech and articulation problems have eating or biting problems, but the vast majority that I've seen in my 35 years, there is a correlation. And, and that's why I'm doing this. That's why it's really, really important to go upstream and figure this out because when we look at some of the statistics, which to me are pretty scary, and so I can just imagine a new mom, with her six month old saying, oh my gosh, how am I gonna navigate this? I, I know Jack. I don't know this. I barely got through the diapers. And so I'm just here to help you navigate this and weed through all this clutter. There's a lot of clutter. It's overwhelming, and I've mentioned this before. It's really overwhelming, especially in these last three years. And that's you, mom. That's you with this new kid, this new beautiful angel, and you're like, okay, what do I do? Show me the way, and that's what I'm trying to help you embrace. Say that there's no perfect answer, but there are certainly a ton of better ways to do this because let me give you some statistics. I've already shared that nearly 50% of new moms in your position with kids under six identify at least one child as a picky eater. And that title picky eater is pretty overwhelming because it can just throw your whole family in a, in a spinning nightmare. And then back in 1997, this statistic was, um, upgraded Recently, back in 1997, at least 25% of typically developed kids are diagnosed with feeding disorders. So that's more than just a picky eater that's chewing and swallowing and nutritional, um, diagnoses. Now it's closer to 40%, and this statistic is from the nih. This is the National Institutes of Health. This is our government collecting this information. That, to me, is a scary statistic. And so if we look at the numbers, the hard numbers, so we identify that 24 million people across all ages and genders. So it's not just your children's age, but there's 24 million people with feeding disorders here in the United States. And 95% of them are between 12 and 25 years, and 50% of those then meet the criteria for depression. So again, I'm trying to peel back the layers, connect the dots, and go upstream. Mama, go upstream and figure out how you can avoid and prevent your kid from falling off that cliff and being, stuck downstream, holding on a life jacket, eating three foods and wandering around your house when everybody else is trying to sit down and share a meal together. That's reality. And that's what some people are suggesting. Oh, that's just the new norm. That's the modern world. It doesn't have to be that way. And I'm here to really, really empower you, encourage you, inspire you to stand up in your own power and do it differently. So let me just touch upon the third hidden sensory system, the third sensory system called the Interceptive. And I mentioned this in, in an episode or two ago, but it's when the receptors on our internal organs are responsible for providing information of how our internal body feels, as well as our emotional states. So the interception signals provide that information. And the examples would be, and this is why it's really, really important to start early, start when they're six months old, and help them with language to understand these internal feelings when you're hungry or when you're thirsty. Or when you're full, right? And that internal feeling of when you feel hot or cold, um, is it too hot in the room? And I can't sit in this chair. I'm sticking to the, to the seat, and I'm uncomfortable. Remember back in that bar stool, there are many, many times where I've sat in a bar stool. Outside, right? At a restaurant, and you're miserable. It's hot and sticky, and I, I'm sticking to the wood and I'm sticking to the countertop. My feet are dangling. It's not fun. And I stay there either miserably or I just wanna get up and leave, right? But some of these other interceptive examples would be, again, centered around potty training, right? Do I have to urinate? Do I have to go to the toilet? Am I having cramps because my bowel movement is moving across my transverse intestine? A, another example would be, if I have an itch or a scratch, can, can I locate it on my body? Your 18 month old is sitting there and maybe he has a, a bug bite or two that you are unaware of, and they're like uncomfortable and they're wigging wiggling, and they're trying to scratch it, and they scratch it and scratch it and scratch it. Then it bleeds, right? And so this interceptive system is growing and learning how to regulate that. Do I just scratch it just slightly, just enough to satisfy the itch or do I scratch it and then, you know, make myself bleed? Other examples would be your emotional states. Are they sad? Are they happy? Is there a little anxiety going on? A fear or worry? Can I self-regulate that? Am I tired? You know, and so all of these interceptive senses need to grow and develop through life experience, and that we, the adults, in charge of them help build that vocabulary when they do have a meltdown. You know, let them feel their feelings, be present with them. Don't try to squash it. Let them experience it and say, wow, you must be really mad. Or It looks like you're really tired. Do you just wanna lay down? Maybe go inside and be cool and lay down. Maybe they're hot, maybe they're tired. Maybe they're just simply not hungry. Right. And so we have to give them room and time and experience and opportunities to shape this, to shape these systems. And here's the key about neuroplasticity, and that's, you know, what got me into this field and what made me really fall in love with early intervention and supporting children is because of neuroplasticity that we're all still a work in progress. They're just under construction. You and I are fully developed physically. But all of these types of things we can regulate, we can mitigate, we can expand upon, or we can then just say, you know what? This isn't working for me. I'm not very good at enlarged crowds because it's just overwhelming. The auditory, the visual, the, the sense, right? That whole proprioceptive of like, people are too close to me. They smell funny, they, they're talking too loudly. We get to understand ourselves of what does work for us and what doesn't, and how we can adjust kind of our mindset when we need to. I go into a whole different mindset when I know I have to travel, when I know I'm going to be, you know, seeing people and hearing things and smelling things that I'm not necessarily fond of. I also know that I'm not very good at like, Busy shopping centers, and I learned this in my twenties, that I do not go to big shopping malls, especially like when they're sales or holidays. Nope, that's not me. I don't like it. Now, I don't really mind large crowds if I have a purpose or if I like the purpose, right? But I have to be in a, in a mindset for it. I have to be ready for it. And there are things that US adults do and it's beginning to trickle down to other children, like learning how to meditate, to get in touch with those interceptive systems, right? Our emo, to be able, if you're starting to feel anxious or worried, can I touch that inside? Can I tap into that and maybe do some breathing, maybe some focus. Those kinds of, those tools that we can use to help mitigate, but to a one year old or two-year old, or five-year old, or eight year old, right? Th there are some wonderful studies that meditation or quiet time, or yoga, those kinds of things really, really can help kids' behaviors and attention and compliance and getting along and social engagement and all of those things. But if we help wire the system healthfully in the beginning, then we can, I those introduce those kinds of things later on. Not necessarily as a survival, but oh, this is a good tool that really helps you feed your healthy lifestyle. So try your best to look at their perspective. They're very young, under construction, immature ability to understand this world. Us, us adults. Our sensory system has become more organized over time. Yes, we have, a, a broad spectrum of all of the all eight sensory systems, and some of us are better at others, but you've learned to integrate certain stimuli while reacting in a meaningful way to the other people in your environment. And like I said, and we can continue to talk about this because I think it's really helpful. For you to have this knowledge in your back pocket. So when you're looking at your child, you can help understand what makes them tick or what is hyper or hypo and, and putting these pieces together. And we'll talk a lot more. It's really, really important. I think the, the, the whole sensory systems, and we talk a lot about the five senses that the, the ones that look outward right in our environment, but. These hidden three are really, really critical to this whole integrative process of learning, of growing, of building life skills and, and finding a sense of wellbeing and that, and that's what it's all about. You know that and I know that. So thanks again for joining me and sharing your time. And if you're getting benefit from this, please share with friends and family. I really am on a mission to help 10,000 moms, new moms just like you. Peel back the layers, understand what's going on, and how you can navigate this modern world without overwhelm, without meltdowns, and with the least amount of stress as possible. So God bless and I'll see you next week.