Gradual introduction of solid foods in early childhood takes part in the maturation of mastication. The impact of any oral state alteration on food oral processing development is poorly documented for this age group. This study investigated the masticatory behavior in 3 to 6 year-old children with or without early childhood caries (ECC) for three solid foods of different textures. Twenty-one children with healthy oral state and 23 children with severe ECC were observed during complete mastication of calibrated samples of raw carrot, cheese and breakfast cereals. Food refusals and kinematic parameters (Ti: chewing time, Nc: number of cycles and Fq: chewing frequency) were used to assess children masticatory behavior. Oral Health-related Quality of Life and orofacial dysfunctions were evaluated using respectively the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) and the Nordic Orofacial dysfunction Test Screening (NOT-S). Children exhibited significantly higher ECOHIS and NOT-S scores in presence of ECC, in particular for the mastication domain. Accordingly, lower chewing frequencies values were recorded in children with ECC (i.e. carrot Fq: 1.21+/-0.20 versus 1.35+/-0.22, p