Between six and nine months several abilities develop, one after the other. First, the baby manages to bite or gnaw off a small piece of food with his gums (or his teeth, if he has any). Soon after this he discovers how to keep the food in his mouth for a while and, because the size and shape of the inside of his mouth has changed and he now has more control of his tongue, he is able to move the food around and chew it. At this stage though, as long as he is sitting upright it will almost certainly fall out of his mouth rather than be swallowed.
