14 month old gagging & vomiting

[Jonesy25]

Hi ladies,
My son is 14 months old and I've tried him with all sorts of food but no matter what it is he will eat a few spoonfuls then gag and vomit! Even baby porridge! I squashed a petit poi and he still gagged and was sick! I've tried letting him feed himself toast etc still ends up gagging, going blue or vomiting. I've been patient as I know all children develop at different paces but I'm worried he isn't getting the nutrition he needs. Would I sound silly going to my gp??

 

[noon_child]

I don't think they would think it's silly. Best to get possible physical causes checked as, although babies can gag at first, they learn from it and become better eaters, and turning blue (actual choking) is very uncommon. Eating also strengthen facial muscles used for talking. Plus food is so tasty, I hate the thought of someone being turned off eating because of unpleasant early experiences. Good luck!

 

[SucreK]

Exact same thing happened to a friend of mine. Your babe will need to see an occupational therapist who specializes in eating. Her son has gone about once a week for a few months and is perfectly fine now. Good luck!

 

[petite ping]

LO2 has been doing that since we've moved on to lumpier foods. Mealtimes have become a real fight. I have to commend LO2's defensive moves which are on the same level of a karate black belt. She gags at each mouthful and sometimes brings up all or some of the meal. So we've taken a step back to purees again in an attempt to destress meal times for her. It may be due to teething or the fact that she is not really for lumpy food as she tends to swallow everything without chewing.

 

[MindUtopia]

If you feel concerned, I would definitely trust your intuition and get it checked out with your GP. But what other finger foods have you tried? Besides the fact that it could genuinely be an issue of gag reflex sensitivity hanging around longer than it ideally should have, it also seems like the foods you're offering tend to be ones that are really hard to control in the mouth, mashed up food, porridge, a mashed pea. More whole, big, chunky foods might be better to try to offer more of a sense of control, because porridge and pureed/mushy foods are very quick to run down the throat or go to the back of the mouth and trigger gagging. It may be that you need to turn to big pieces of finger food and just stick with those for awhile (like weeks to months and see how it goes) before you know if it's just a matter of not having enough practice eating. We started with finger foods at 6 months and there was definitely some gagging at first, but by 9 months, my daughter was eating them easily. But as you can see, it does take time. It won't happen just with having tried it here and there for a few weeks. I would probably be inclined to switch fully to finger foods and see what happens. The good thing is that a strong gag reflex means your LO is less likely to ever actually choke because it will protect food that goes to the back of the mouth. So you might just try that and stick with it for a month or two, while offering vitamins and milk on demand still, but also I'd see your GP to rule out any actual physiological reasons or deal with them if they exist. If there is no actual explanation for it, then you know it's just a matter of giving it some more time.