Older preemies - weaning - gagging & vomit?

[Marleysgirl]

Hopefully some of the mums of older preemies still read this forum (I know both Sb22 and myself do!)

I'm trad-weaning (puree) Andrew, and we're trying to move from Stage 1 onto Stage 2 lumpy foods. When he gags on a lump, it results in him vomiting, generally throwing up the whole feed to that point. This happens about once a week, very messily I've got a thread about this in the Weaning forum, as it seems that most babies simply gag, but don't then vomit.

But Sb22 commented that her Alex also had this problem, and it made us wonder whether it's particularly a preemie thing? Perhaps increased sensitivity from having been OGT-fed when younger?

Have the mums of other preemies, now weaning, noticed this problem?

 

[AP]

You know what I do find though? If i give her soft potato waffle and leave her in control, she is better at it. I suspect when I use stage 2, she automatically thinks its a smooth puree on the spoon, and therefore gags and spews!

 

[embojet]

Molly was never actually sick, but would just flat refuse to eat lumpy purees for months. But like Alex, she would do fine with food that she knew wouldnt be smooth e.g. finger foods.

 

[hopedance]

sam is the opposite, he hates puree so eats lots of finger foods, he rarely gags and has never been sick from it.

 

[Laura2919]

It took Chloe and Jaycee ages to move onto lumps.. They used to throw it up loads.
Nursery helped me a lot because they were going there but we just started with mash potato and put beans in it for the lumps and slowly they took to it.
Its hard to offer advice because I didnt do it all on my own.

 

[Olivias_mum]

Olivia chokes on everything she eats,including milk and water!!think it might be part of the reflux?you might remember that she had serious choking issues in nicu,it's not improved at all!!xx

 

[Lisa-2323]

Im so glad there are still mummies on here that have prem babies a while ago. My lil girl is almost 16 months. she was just under 14 weeks early and weighed 1lb 9oz. I tried weaning her on organic baby food Jars at 9 months at the advice of health visitor. She would gag and choke for the 3 days i tried her. she had a heart problem so I was so scared I left it for a couple of weeks then tried again on mashed soft fruit it worked really well she would have a few spoons with no problems. so i gradually introduced different flavors but only my own cooking and liquidized with the veg water and increased the lumpy bits graudually too. It took a while but by the time she was 12 months she was on finger foods too. I avoided beans and peas as the skins dont liquidize and they get stuck in the back of their mouth and makes them gag too prem or not i found that out with my 2 year old. Strawberrys and bananas were Lydia's fav.

 

[Foogirl]

Abby was on purees for aaaages. She just flat out refused anything lumpy. We then discovered she would take lumpier puddings but not veggies so that helped.

Like SB22 says, try him with finger foods and see how he gets on. Abby was chomping on well buttered toast and managing fine but hated lumpy veg and would gag lots (although she was never sick) Once she got more used to chewing, she started to take lumpier meals - although we still struggle and she won't eat meat!!

The other finger foods which we like are the corn snacks, organics carrot sticks for 7m+ - kind of like wotsits, they melt quite easily in the mouth but they get used to biting them. Ellas kitchen cookies are great too, they can gum the heck out of them and they go all mushy (and Messy!)

 

[Lisa-2323]

Abby was on purees for aaaages. She just flat out refused anything lumpy. We then discovered she would take lumpier puddings but not veggies so that helped.

Like SB22 says, try him with finger foods and see how he gets on. Abby was chomping on well buttered toast and managing fine but hated lumpy veg and would gag lots (although she was never sick) Once she got more used to chewing, she started to take lumpier meals - although we still struggle and she won't eat meat!!

The other finger foods which we like are the corn snacks, organics carrot sticks for 7m+ - kind of like wotsits, they melt quite easily in the mouth but they get used to biting them. Ellas kitchen cookies are great too, they can gum the heck out of them and they go all mushy (and Messy!)

Liddie can't eat meat either even now no matter how mince she still gags and chokes on the smallest amount, was going to mention that, I wonder if that is commen in prem babies?