Abstract This study measured the masticatory force of toddlers at a nursery school using color changing chewing gums to examine the relationship between the differences in the masticatory force and the attributes of the toddlers, elements involved in the meal, awareness of parents to mastication of their children and so on. The results showed: first, that children either with no siblings or two or more tended to have higher masticatory force than children with one sibling. Second, that boys’ masticatory force tended to be stronger than girls’ and third, that children with high masticatory force eat a wider soft-to-hard range of foods while children with lower masticatory force tend to eat softer foods. The study is intent on both, encouraging young children to have more interest in chewing and also raising the awareness of parents to improve masticatory force for themselves and their children.

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