BLW - Won't they choke??

[sevenofnine]

I am looking to start BLW with my daughter! I love the idea, she is very interested, and has a pincer grasp. We've been doing homemade purees, but she wants to feed herself.

I'm just not sure what to give her. I keep thinking if I let her try anything, she'll choke on it! I don't know whether these thoughts are wrong or not. She hasn't choked on anything or gagged yet no matter what I've given her. She loves food!

She was chewing on apple slices today and chomped off a big hunk, and I went in her mouth to get it because I was afraid she'd choke! How are you supposed to handle instances like that? What foods are best to start with?

She loves avocado and has had that, and loves banana. I would love to try carrots, but aren't they too hard?

I'm so confused! Please help!

Thanks!

 

[Cheska]

It is scary but I don't think she will choke. Young babies have a good gag reflex. I have my lo a baby sweetcorn the other day and I saw a big piece go down and then he gagged and it came back up!! I stare when he's eating. I was like you at first, left his clips off his seat so I could throw him out if he was choking and fingers at the ready to fish things out.

I haven't done blw from the start but have always left lumps. If your a bit upsurge start with small lumps to get her used to them. Or rice, Cous Cous, small pasta, slighly mashed banana. Basically I mean soft foods.

Good luck

 

[SarahBear]

Carrots and apples are both too hard unless cooked. If she likes avocado and banana and has the pincer grasp, try cutting those up into pieces and letting her pick them up to feed herself. I know once Violet started feeding herself, she did gag a lot. She had to learn that you can't just keep stuffing pieces in there. You have to wait a bit. I took the food away from her a few times or blocked her hand from going to her mouth. She eventually slowed down though and doesn't gag as much. She'll also hold a piece while she finishes what's in her mouth. The way you handle incidences like the apple incidence is either letting them spit it out or jumping in as you did. It can be scary, but babies (after 6 months) are built to eat!

 

[SabrinaKat]

We started with TW, but LO had other ideas, and so, moved to BLW!

In fact, he loves carrots (cut in half so half moon size, boil for a few minutes, then rinse with cold water so can serve without worrying about heat!), broccoli, etc. We also do macaroni with sprinkled herbs on top (e.g. store own brand of 'mixed' herbs), which he loves! Try fish fingers or even cod fillets or salmon (we found that our LO preferred regular cod rather than fish sticks -- sorry, am American, but live over in Ireland, so use some UK/Ire vocab), also graham crackers might be okay, as well as rice cakes (can get for babies, our LO now eats big people rice-cakes) and raisins (rinse and soak in water for a few minutes)....

good luck!

 

[Elisianna]

I haven't started BLW yet but plan to when Lulu is six months. I just wanted to mention that I was reading about a small study conducted and 30% of a sample of families reported one or more episodes of choking. All of those were on raw apple and all of them were resolved by the baby themselves with coughing.

 

[MindUtopia]

She very likely won't choke (or at least no more so than when you start her on finger foods eventually anyway). Babies are actually a lot more able to manage these things than I think we give them credit for. I always compare it to other animals. You don't see baby calves or baby monkeys choking on solid food. They have an in-borne instinct of how to eat safely, provided the right food are made available, just like we do. My daughter is just 2 days younger than your LO and I've been amazed the things she can manage! Today we had steamed carrot sticks and steamed french beans and then spaghetti with tomato sauce. Yesterday, she had figs, raw tomato wedges and rice cakes with cashew butter. She frequently bites off big chunks. Sometimes she chews and swallows them (actually a really big chunk of carrot came out in her nappy today, I had no idea she'd actually manage something that big but she can). Sometimes she just spits them back out. Occasionally, she gags and gets them out. But they really can do it. It's harder for us than it is for them, but the changes I've seen in her motor skills and the interest in food that's developed since we started has been awesome. I'd really recommend giving it a try.

Some great first foods we found were roasted carrots, steamed broccoli, mashed up avocado or banana or nut butters on mini rice cakes, mashed potato, steamed baby sweet corn, etc.

 

[Button#]

The best way to handle a situation like the apple incident is to sit on your hands. It is actually more dangerous to intefere as you could accidently push it into their throat. It is worth looking up how to handle a choking baby, the Red Cross do an app that is quite useful.

Gagging is fairly common and can be scary but it sounds worse than it is. Choking is usually silent and the baby will be unable to breathe in which case you should step in. We've never had a choking incident and I've given Ashley sliced apple and hard carrots from the start. He didn't really eat the hard carrots until he had more teeth but they were great for teething.

Although it can be a bit scary once you get into it and see how much they enjoy it it is really good fun.