finger food fear

[~Emma~]

 I am scared to death to give her finger foods incase she chokes. I never had this fear with B so its all new to me. She is such a pig that she just bites bits off and swallows straight away, no gumming down it for her.

 Any tips on getting over this fear?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Spencer was always being piggy and shoving food in her mouth too, but she has (and I think most kids do) a great gag relfex...so it would sound horrid, but she wasn't choking, only gagging up when she took too much or if the texture bothered her. 

Out of all the times she has been "choking" only twice was she really choking and I had to do what they used to call the heimlich on her.  That is one thing I would suggest, if you haven't taken first aid for kids, it will help so that you know what to do if the situation ever arose. 

And please don't think that because Spencer truly choked that Dylan will, she had enlarged tonsils & a tiny throat to begin with and both times she was running around with food in her mouth (thanks DH  ), not sitting in her booster chair, and she was over 2 years old at the time with all of her teeth, so it was not a case of not being able to deal with finger food.

[~Sara~]

*hugs* Emma...totally BTDT.  Aaron's gag reflex is still sensitive, and he didn't chew food very well either at Dylan's age.  Got his teeth early, too, so he was able to bit big chunks off of stuff. 

We took things really slowly with textures, gradually making his purees thicker and chunkier.  If you'd like to give her crunchier things, I'd just make sure they dissolve quickly; or if you're steaming things, that mush up pretty easily.

[Roseii]

I have a massive fear of my babies choking, I have been soooo cautious about what they ate but DD2 is now eating loads of different finger foods, I found toast fingers is a really good one to start on as they go nice and mushy. I just took it slow and anything I wasn't sure about I just avoided, ie she only had bread sticks after 9m xx

[~inbalance~]

What about starting with things that are softer and easier for her to manage instead of anything too hard?  How is her pincher grasp?  I was always a little paranoid about choking too, so I would dice food up into smaller bits that were too small to choke on.  Both boys could pick them up and eat them easily that way. 

[Lemonthyme]

My best tip is learn how to deal with choking.  It might never happen but it might get you over the fear of it.  My LO did choke (9 months old on a piece of raw apple so probably a silly choice of food from me), I did the turning him upside down on my knee and patting him on my back thing I was taught in our first aid class and it came straight out.

[C&B&E]

We did BLW with Ben, and he had plenty of gagging episodes, but ironically the one and only time I was seriously worried about him choking was on an occasion when he was eating some jarred baby food with lumps in it and he started doing a weird breathing/coughing thing.  I agree with pp's that is is so good to learn what to do if they choke - as this could happen anytime anyway, not just on food - and then just offer softer finger foods until you feel more confident.  xx

[~Emma~]

We were doing BLW until she choked on a piece of cooked carrot. I was so shaken up by it, I still let her continue for the next meal and she choked again (cant remember what on!).

 My SIL was having dinner with us and I dread to think what would have happened if she wasnt there. She gave her a good thump whilst holding her practically upside down. A wee bit of food when flying across the the room.

 She is just such a pig. I gave her toast yesterday and she just rips a piece off with her wee gums and it goes straight down down the hatch. Thankfully it was only a small piece though.

 Her purees are pretty lumpy now but I would just love to give her finger foods as I know she'd love doing it herself.

[~inbalance~]

The older she gets too the more she will learn to manage it.  It's hard when they're really little as they just don't know what to do with the food in their mouth!  A lot of it is practice.  I agree that you should know what to do, but otherwise it's good to keep trying. 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

She gave her a good thump whilst holding her practically upside down.

Which is exactly what you need to do, until they are too big to invert like that, then its the heimlich (or whatever they call it now!).  I really need to recertify my first aid, but I'm glad I have the basic stuff like that stuck in my head.

[~Emma~]

 So tried her on a wee bit of toast today and she choked. Should i just hold off on finger foods for a while do you think? That 3 times she's choked now and I'm talking proper cant breathe.  Its just made me so uneasy about finger foods with her.

 I did however manage the thump on the back. 

[Lemonthyme]

Perhaps try softer things for a while.  My LO hasn't really had toast for all that long.  At 7 months as well you don't have to be giving finger foods on every meal if you don't want to.  It's only fairly recently that my LO (at 12 months) will feed himself an entire meal but that's just because I did traditional weaning. 

Some babies will self feed softer stuff like mashed potato.  Have you tried something like that?  Or maybe some cooked vegetables?  Toast could be fairly crunchy or can mush up to a nice chokeable ball.  Maybe your LO is just sensitive to that?  I know I was surprised by some of the things my LO didn't gag on; cucumber, cooked mini sweetcorn, cooked pasta etc whereas he did gag on some things other babies were fine with.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I did however manage the thump on the back.

Good job!  I would hold off on the toast too, we actually started with cheerios soaked in a bit of (soy) milk to make them mushy.  Masyn loved pasta at that age, I overcooked it so it was super soft and used baby food like sweet potato as sauce...she was a weird one, because I could add shredded meat too, and she would use her hands and gobble it all up.

[~inbalance~]

Can she pick up small things Emma?  I would do small bits of fruits and veg, maybe some cheerios, and shredded cheese or meats.  I wouldn't abandon finger foods altogether though.  Agreeing that it's probably best to stay away from toast, it's so dry and crumbly.