My sons not chewing his food

[Solitaire]

It's taken me over 3 months of weaning to get my son to eat food.
I've noticed thought that he's just swallowing it and then ends up gagging and bringing it all back up.

How do I get him to squash the food?

 

[MindUtopia]

Are you giving him finger foods? Just let him explore and don't hover too much. He'll get it, but you have to give him the chance to do it. Give him big chunky things (chip-sized food). He can't actually swallow those whole and will have to at least bite off bits, which will eventually lead to chewing. If he has good use of his pincer grip, then small food like peas or cubes of carrot or easy to mush food like mashed potato also are great. Honestly, my daughter doesn't always chew her food. We gave her raisins the other day and then next morning about 40 whole raisins came out in her nappy! But there's a difference between not chewing and gagging/vomiting and you might just need to give him time to figure out how to safely chew and swallow his food. The best thing is lots of finger foods (not chunky or mashed food on a spoon as it doesn't let him have as much control over chewing and swallowing) and just giving it time. It's an in-borne instinct in babies to be able to eat safely. He may have an especially strong gag reflex, but that's usually gone in most babies by about 7 months or so. I think just be patient and let him take the lead on what he needs.

 

[sillysapling]

Are you giving him finger foods? Just let him explore and don't hover too much. He'll get it, but you have to give him the chance to do it. Give him big chunky things (chip-sized food). He can't actually swallow those whole and will have to at least bite off bits, which will eventually lead to chewing.

They can bite off too large bits or bite off too many bits without swallowing, leading to gagging/vomiting.

Be careful with bready things as they tend to mush together into a big, unmanageable glob. Our baby has been throwing up every time we tried bready things. Chicken fingers and steamed chunks of fruits/veg is also very good, they tend to mush more easily. You can also coat bananas with yogurt and wheat germ and freeze it for a (very messy) teething treat.

Someone posted a topic with 101 BLW recipes or something, I'd check that out.

If you are going with steamed vegetables/fruits and still having this problem, it may be a good idea to wait until your baby has mastered the pincer grasp so you can make sure to only give small enough pieces that, if swallowed whole, won't be a problem. Happy Yogi are treats that melt in the baby's mouth, so may be a good thing to try if you can get them because then if your baby doesn't get the hang of chewing, it shouldn't be as big of a problem.

 

[Solitaire]

I tried the blw at first but it wasn't working for us, he wouldn't touch the food, so we went to spoon feeding.
I just don't know what to feed him as he only has one tooth.
Health visitor says he can have everything but I'm worried cos he just try's to swallow, and he doesn't like lumps in his mouth.
I do give him finger foods too when we're eating for him to suck on. He likes sucking Yorkshire puddings ha

 

[lozzy21]

My daughter did not get any teeth untill 10 months but she loved rice cakes with peanut butter

 

[SarahBear]

It's taken me over 3 months of weaning to get my son to eat food.
I've noticed thought that he's just swallowing it and then ends up gagging and bringing it all back up.

How do I get him to squash the food?

How old is he? There's not much you can do other than continue to offer and he'll eventually figure it out.