Help! I have a baby that seems to gag all the time!

[MummyNovember]

Since my daughter turned 25wks I have been introducing a bit of solid food. I made my own food with my son & want to with my daughter also. However unlike my son who took to it instantly, my daughter gags with just about everything I give her! I started her on baby rice & she gagged on that, eventually ive found that the banana sunrise cereal is her favorite, & the only thing she will eat and not gag on (strangely, she doesnt like actual banana by itself!). I tried her on something mild, a couple of spoonfuls of puree carrot mixed with her milk, after a few gags she threw up the entire contents of her stomach. Same with puree'd pear. I thought to myself that ok maybe home made stuff is possibly a bit to bitter for her right now. So I got one of the boxed powdered meals that you just add water to as I thought that maybe a bit milder. Sure enough she gagged on that & threw up everywhere. She has a very sensitive gag reflex like I always have done & apparently I was a bugger to wean. So its Karma.. But I cant keep feeding her on banana sunrise cereal! She doesnt even like rusks.

I really need some advice because im strugling to think what to do at the moment. Should I wait till shes a few months older? Possibly try full on baby led weaning with her? Has anyone suffered the same thing with thier LO's? xx

 

[xxVickyxx]

I have no advice really but want to say my ds2 is 8 months old almost and only now has he starting eating and not gagging on EVERYTHING!! The only thing he didnt gag on was fruit purée but like u i felt i couldnt just feed him on that. I just persevered and fed him a little at a time. Eventually he gradually got better but still sometimes gags. I know how frustrating it can be as my ds1 took to weaning like a duck to water so i thought ds2 would b the same, i couldnt have been more wrong xx

 

[Rachel_C]

If she's gagging a lot and throwing stuff up/spitting it out, I'd just wait until she's older or let her feed herself. It sounds like she's not ready, or at the very least she's not enjoying it much so I wouldn't persevere with it as it won't do anything good to continue. Perhaps just try giving her normal foods instead of purées. She might just be one of those babies who won't take them. We did BLW with both kids but if we'd chosen TW instead I think we would have been fine with our oldest but I bet the youngest would have refused purées too, it's just how she is!

Or you could try changing the things you offer. Given a choice of baby rice, carrots or banana cereal, I know which I'd pick! Maybe just give her exactly the same as you're eating - if you want to blend it go ahead but she may prefer it just given normally like you do for your older littleun.

 

[nevernormal]

My son (30 weeks) gags a lot too. He always has. From early on, he'd gag on his fists, or my finger if he was sucking on it (wouldn't take a pacifier), or for just no reason that I could tell

He doesn't gag nearly as much but since we've started introducing foods he has more. He doesn't typically throw up, thank goodness!

We still offer foods, and when he gags we try to stay calm and let him sort it out. There was once when it seemed to go on forever and I got worried about choking, but he was fine! We're doing a mix of BLW (from me, mainly!) and purees (DH's approach). Honestly, he probably gags equally on both. I mean, more of the purees make it into his mouth so he's gagged more on that, but even when he's feeding himself he just doesn't know what to do with the food once it's in there. It HAS improved though. He now only gags on purees if DH shoves it in his mouth when he's made it clear he's not interested grr:... so not happy with this!). The finger foods are hit & miss but I know he'll get it!

I agree with Rachel, let her feed herself and play with the food on her own for a while. Milk will sustain her! You said you started her at 25 weeks -- that would be like this past Saturday, right? (My nephew was born June 21, and I think he hits 26 weeks tomorrow). It seems like you're trying a lot of variety too quickly or possibly just expecting her to get the hang of it too quickly. It hasn't even been a week yet!