9.5 mo gagging alot

[sbalcome1980]

Hi,

I am looking for some help with solids for my 9.5 mo ds.  He was weaned at 6 months, starting with cereals, then onto smooth purees and at about 7.5 months we started with some chunkier purees and mashed foods.  He gags alot, which makes me scared to try bigger peices and/or finger food.  Currently, he can't handle a peice of food bigger than a cheerio, even if it's something really soft such as banana.  I would like to be able to give him chunks of soft fruit, or some toast etc. but I am scared that he will choke.  Even a peice of well cooked pasta makes him gag enough that I think I'm gonna have to intervene.  When he first started having cheerios at 8 months, he gagged on them alot, and he can handle them now.  My HV said that I really need to push things along because he might end up not being able to handle bigger peices as a result of getting used to smooth food.  Any suggestions?

[Lolly]

Gagging is actually a good thing! I know it's hard to watch but when they gag they are learning to protect their airways and are developing their oral muscles to help control food. My two both had finger foods from the start and both gagged a lot to start, DS in particular had a very sensitive gag reflex and gagged enough to vomit everything back up several times. They just needed the practice and the gagging phase lasted a few weeks, and then odd times when they had new textured foods.

I would keep offering chunks of food to let him practice, things that are chip shaped and big enough to hold with a bit sticking out of their hands are good because they can control it better themselves. You can do things like steamed or roast veg fingers and broccoli "trees" are easy to hold and munch on. I found that banana was one of the worst things for making my two gag, I think it's because it's mushy but sticky and harder to manipulate in your mouth. I left banana until they were able to hold a whole baby one and bite bits off.

Watch out for smooth puree with lumps in, my two were very good at foods like sandwich fingers by 7/8 months but they found jarred food with lumps in really hard. I think they get confused when they have smooth textures with odd lumps in - they don't know what to do with it! They did much better on thicker textured and mashed foods and moved on to more roughly mashed rather than added lumps (hope that makes sense!).

HTH!

Laura

[MadisonC]

DS did the same thing.  He is 11.5 months and still gags on a few things that are of a weird texture. 

[sbalcome1980]

Took your advice re: finger foods yesterday and tried some potato wedges.  It went really well!!!!  He also ate mashed peaches and banana with no gagging.

When should we be able to try things like toast fingers?

[Lolly]

Any time you like! My two had toast fingers as soon as they hit 6 months and loved them!

Laura

[sbalcome1980]

..........had toast fingers with strawberry jelly today and only one very minor gagging episode!!!  I am in total disbelief that my little guy can handle this stuff.  I have been going about it all wrong!