Gagging and being sick on finger food...advice please!

[Holloway76]

Hello,

I really need some advice, I feel totally lost with all this feeding solids stage. My son is 8.5 months and does really enjoy his food. I'm still breastfeeding him too. I've started to mash his food up rather than puree and he's doing well. As he's nearly 8.5 months I've started to introduce finger food, I have offered him banana cut in to chunks the size of my index finger and steamed carrot, also rice cakes. The problem is although he is starting to learn how to chew he still just sometimes bites a big bit of and swallows it, this is then followed by lots of wretching and he is very sick. It's not pleasant for him or me. I wondered if I should be cutting things up smaller for him, I've read on here food can be the size of your thumb nail? Is this right? Is this gagging normal or does it mean he's not ready to have finger food? Should I concentrate on mashing his food and making that lumpier? Should I just keep offering the finger food? I feel so lost with all of this, all my friends babies are eating toast and other things I can't imagine my son would handle, I know I shouldn't compare but it's hard not to. Any advice would be great.

Many thanks, Emma

[*Nicola*]

(((Hugs)))

We are doing BLW and at the beginning DD would choke and gag and lots.  She would cough a lot, obviously after getting something go down the wrong way.  Then she would bring it all back up.  I think this went on for about 2/3 weeks.  It didn't happen at every meal but it did happen regularly. 

Gagging is the reflex used when they get a bit of food near their throat that they can't deal with for some reason (usually size!).  It brings it to the front of the mouth  

With practice they do get better!  DD has no teeth and stuffs everything into her mouth so that it is full but we rarely have sickness now.

[Lolly]

We also went through a stage of him gaging and throwing everything back up. At one stage my LO seemed to have a really sensitive gag reflex and banana was one of the worst offenders . It did pass, and to be honest we have found bigger chunks that he can bite/suck/chomp by himself to be WAY better than little pieces as he is in control. It's a really horrible stage - I never knew what to clean up first but it did pass after a few weeks.

For a while now he has much preferred to have a whole fruit (apple, banana, plum - whatever!) in his hand than a piece.

HTH!

Laura

[emmas]

I found that too - if I let ds have bits to hold and bite off himself he was less like to gag - still does it occasionally but I think its just part of learning.  I found really exaggerating my chewing of food helped him as he started to copy me.

[jldaven]

I'm in the same boat.  I don't have a clue what finger foods to feed my 9 month old son.  I read that people give them toast.  Is this a whole piece and you just let them chew on it or do you cut it up?  Do you give it to them dry or do you put a spread on it?  Thank you so much!

[Lolly]

To be honest toast is another food my LO gagged on really well . Have a look at the Baby Led Weaning (BLW) boards for ideas! We gave finger food from 6 months so we gave steamed/roast veggies in chip shaped chunks - (sweet potato is really good), soft fruit like peaches/plums/nectarines in segments, apple in segments but microwaved a little to soften. With the soft fruit he started by sucking the flesh and spitting out the skin and eventually began chewing more and eventually ate the skin as well with no problem.

Laura

[liacarmen]

We have the same thing, my son is so chunk adverse. He used to sneer at chunks on his tray - not kidding. I love the philosophy behind blw, but I couldn't make it work because he was so uninterested in food. After trying for two months we discovered his love of pureed pears. Now he likes to chew on big hunks, but doesn't know what to do when he gets a bigger chunk in his mouth. Likes cheerios, but he grasps them and sucks on them then spits them out. They're all different I guess! I'm continuing to offer big chunks, little chunks and purees because he eats the purees.