scared now

[oct-bump]

I've been giving my LO food to lick for a few weeks. Today I gave her steamed sweet potato. I think she swallowed some because she had this awful look on her face. She did this twice. Is this normal for the first time they swallow food? Or do you think she took too big of a bite.

I'm scared now of BLW or any kind of eating concept.

 

[Lu28]

Aisling had that look on her face every time she tried something new, don't worry! She sometimes looked like she thought I was trying to poison her or something!

 

[oct-bump]

Well, we experienced her first gag today. On a banana. It was scary.

I think she is still to young to start BLW. I'm going to try those mesh things for a while.

 

[special_kala]

Gagging is good in that she is learning how much she can swallow ect, she will have to learn at some point how to do it. River pulls a *gross* face with every new food but it goes straight back in

 

[Lu28]

I agree with special kala hon. If BLW is something you want to do at any point, gagging is part and parcel of it until LO realises how much to put in their mouths etc etc. It is something you get used to and they learn quickly, I can't remember the last time Aisling gagged.

 

[oct-bump]

I didn't know that gagging is normal in the beginning. It sure is scary. I guess I will have to deal with it I hope this stage doesn't last long.

Do you think it's possible to choke on bananas? My OH doesn't think so.

 

[special_kala]

gagging is completly normal. they need to work out how to move food around their mouths and how much to swallow and gagging is fundermental in that.

River has gagged a few times and it is scary but im so proud of her when she clears it herself.

tbh you can choke on anything and traditional weaning there is still the chance of gagging and choking. my niece is spoon fed and moved onto stage 2 at the correct time and she gagged with the lumps

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ruby went a long time with no gagging but I've started giving her proper sandwiches not just things on toast / bread and we've had a few gags, one that I even mistook for a choke but luckily my friend who BLW her now 18m old was there and assured me it was a gag!

There is MORE chance of traditionally weaned babies choking once they move to finger foods, because they haven't been chewing / moving food around their mouths from the start, the first purees get sucked straight to the back of the mouth and swallowed.

Plus the gag reflex is very close to the front of the mouth at 6 months so choking is very unlikely, making it the ideal time to introduce food.

 

[NIfirsttimer]

yep we had our fair share of gagging too... now its very rare! stick at it hun, i was TERRIFIED in the begginning, now i couldnt imagine doing it any other way!

 

[craftymum]

I'm scared too as I've tried Jacob on a few bits of fruit and veg and not only has he gagged but he's choked a bit and then puked everything up again, I've just figured that he's not quite ready yet so I'm going to leave it a couple of weeks then try again.

 

[NIfirsttimer]

the puking is just a gag reflex thats a wee bit overactive, and you will probably fine he would do it if he was spoonfed too id start with foods that hes less likely to bit bits off for now, to get him used to the idea, then in a few weeks, go for the softer stuff like veg that hes more likely to bite properly...

 

[craftymum]

what kind of things do you think would be best to start with Kat?

 

[NIfirsttimer]

you could try toast fingers, or breadsticks, raw carrot / veg
things thats are harder to bite so he can have a sook on them instead..might get him used to bringing things to his mouth, and tasting etc.
you dont need to worry about them not being 'proper' food yet, as he wont be eating anything yet...
rice cakes or other wee organix snacks would be good too as they just turn to nothingness in their mouths, so theres literally nothing there to gag on

 

[craftymum]

saw those wee organix things in boots - gonna wait til he's 6 months exactly now (3rd April can you believe!!) then might buy some of those.

 

[andbabymakes3]

Holly loves the Organix ricecakes. Apple and cinnamon is the fave! They also make some lovely organic rusks which Holly goes nuts for (although mean mummy only allows her them a few times a week!).

She gagged quite a lot at first, and it's really hard not to rush in and try to stop them...but every time, she just coughs up/spits out whatever made her gag...and then picks it up and eats it again. My girl is pure class ;-)

 

[purple_socks]

Kian pulls that face too! whenever he tries anything new! lol

we've had some masive gags at first. We had a rathr huge gag-a-thon the first time he tried banana coz he stuffed half of it in there at once! it ended in quite a lot of sick but He happily carried straight on afterwards with no fuss at all! don't pajnic too much because they can deal with this sort of thing really well. its just them learning how to handle food...how big a bite to take, how to move it round their mouth and how to deal with it if it goes down the wrong way (learning to bring food back up by gaging is a really important skill to prevent choking).

if ur finding BLW a bit scary i'd say get the blw book...it explains loads and really helped me to understand abt gagging/choking etc.

Kian hardly ever gags these days...he still pulls that grossed out face but carries on eating whatever it is anyway!

We started out with stiks of steamed veg but now he happily powers through huge portions of anything we're having for dinner (he loves homemade veg curries and is really great at scooping rice up with his hands!)