Transition to baby food

[jandksmommy]

My daughter is having a difficult time with baby food (fruit and veggie purees, baby cereals...). She is 12 months old actual age, 8 months adjusted age, and all her doctors are insisting she needs to be eating more than just her formula. I continue to offer her a variety of pureed foods but the result is almost always the same. She takes a few tiny spoonfuls and then starts gagging and vomits. The only 2 foods she eats without problem are custard and yogurt.

I was just wondering if anyone experienced this issue with your little ones and if there was anything that helped?

 

[lozzy21]

Have you tried her with whole foods in a BLW approach. Some baby's just don't like purée.

 

[jandksmommy]

She really wants whole foods so I have given her little pieces of toast, cheese, banana, and potato but she will chew on it, roll it around in her mouth and then either spit it out or will start gagging. Her gag reflex is so strong! It seems like if the food does not slide down her throat really easily, she will gag and once that starts, she can't seem to stop until she empties her tummy.

 

[lozzy21]

Don't give small pieces of food, they need to be chip size. If the foods too small at first is makes them gag more because they find the food harder to move about their mouth.

 

[AP]

Alex was the same. Anything. Large pieces, to the tiniest bits in a purée all made her throw up everything that was in her stomach. I HATED weaning her. It was soul destroying, and huge pressure from everyone. I used to just sit on the floor in the kitchen with her knowing she'd throw up and I could easy clean it up.

It did get better by 1 year corrected. Soon purées got a bit easier but the transistion to lumps or foods was difficult. The best bit of advice came from the health visitor. She told me to add a few pasta stars (the tiny tiny flat ones from Heinz baby range) into all her purées. We started off with a tiny amount and was surprised she managed ok. We increased it slowly and surely and it helped. It didn't completely stop her chucking up but there was a sure improvement.

There did come a time where she managed large foods better than purées. This was after 1 corrected and it was soft pastry type food that was the start.

All in all-don't panic. This isn't going to be forever. just ensure there's milk and vitamins, (the yogurts are great, ours couldn't tolerate a yoghurt til well past 3 years!!!!)