How do you teach a child to swallow?

My nephew will be 3 on October 21st. He and his mother live with us. She is a single parent. He was born premature and was in the hospital the first 5 1/2 months of his life. During that time he got a severe blood infection and they stopped feeding him by the bottle and put in a g-tube. Since then he receives all of his food/medicine via his g-tube.  He was doing really well putting food in his mouth and trying to improve his oral eating. He caught a cold that blocked his nasal breathing and stopped putting any food in his mouth,I am sure it was too difficult to breath and eat at the same time. We have been trying to get him to eat by mouth again but have been unsuccessful. We have given him all kinds of baby food that dissolves and pudding type foods. He will get it in there but he will not swallow. Then he lets it just fall out. What can you suggest?  We had a therapist coming in to help us, but I promise she did nothing but "talk". Please help!

Thank you.

[Renee Radenberg]

He needs to learn how to chew and swallow food. Usually children on tube-feeds at an early age need to be taught. They need to learn how to chew and swallow food properly; it is not an instinct behavior like sucking. Sorry to hear you did not have success with a therapist. Suggest you find another therapist who well work with children on their swallow/chewing issues. Thank you for your question.