Proper Posture While Eating

Aptos Dentist

A little mindfulness to our daily routine can go a long way for our overall health. Proper posture while doing activities has a huge impact on the way our jaws form and how we breathe.

The goals of proper posture while eating:

1. Help develop the masticatory muscles of the face to guide the growth of the face forward.

2. Eating hard foods and chewing, chewing and more chewing helps our jaws grow forward and widen our dental arches. With wide jaws we have enough space for all of our teeth (no tooth crowding) and an open airway (no sleep apnea)

3. Teaches our tongue to be in the proper position while swallowing (suctioned on the roof of the mouth). Think of a sticker on a ceiling. Your tongue is the sticker and the roof of your mouth is the ceiling. Now stick your tongue up there!

4. Our food should be chewed to a softness that is effortless to swallow. Chew at least 15 times before effortlessly swallowing.

How to do it:

1. legs at 90 degrees with feet flat on the floor. Use blocks or books 📚 to stack under kids feet as seen in this video.

2. back straight

3. hips forward and butt out.

4. Hands rest in legs

5. shoulders back

6. take bite of food and chew 15-20 times until mush. Keep LIPS CLOSED.

7. swallow effortlessly

30 days in a row is a great challenge goal to practice this. This video is day 1 of the challenge for these 2.5 and 4.5 year old children.