Vomiting when trying finger foods??

[Brz04]

Our DS is almost 8.5mo and eats 3 meals of puréed fruits or veggies a day (plus bottles). We are trying to start introducing finger foods as he keeps grabbing at whatever we are eating and has the pincer grasp down pretty well! Well we tried giving him Gerber puffs (broken into tiny pieces) bc they are supposed to dissolve quickly and he got two pieces in his mouth the first try but he gagged terribly then threw up all his puréed food he had eaten about 30 min prior And I'm talking these puffs were broken into TINY pieces. A few days later we tried tiny pieces of mushed up banana and the same thing happened (he gagged badly and threw up all his puréed food). Should I continue to keep trying finger foods or wait until he's a little older? Does the gagging/vomiting mean he's not ready yet?? I think I've heard gagging is normal but is this normal for them to vomit?

 

[AJCart]

Following as we are having a similar issue. She's only actually vomited twice, but gags a lot. Loves her purees though.

 

[Lawgirl]

It's possible that the pieces were too small. My 11 month old has been eating finger food for a long time now, but i sometimes find that if the pieces are small she stuffs them in her mouth and doesn't bother chewing, which can lead to gagging. If, however, they are quite big pieces that she can hold in her hand, she happily chews on them. I'm not sure what gerber puffs are, but have you tried rice cakes? If you break them into quarters he can try chewing on them and they dissolve easily.

Banana can lead to gagging as it is very soft, so again it's easy for them to try swallowing without chewing, meaning they gag.

At the beginning I also never gave purées at the same time as finger food. If I was letting her practice with finger food, I gave any purées second if I felt she needed them.

 

[xolynn]

Maybe try the finger foods a considerable time after hes eaten his purees, like an hour or so? The forceful gagging might lead to him bringing up the puree before its digested...just a thought, not really sure tbh. My LO started on eating gerber puffs when I introduced finger foods too. I never broke them up and just gave him a few at a time..no problem with them except the occasional gagging and spitting it back out...maybe try just giving him one whole puff and see how it goes? Hope things are going well with your little guy and hope things are getting better!!

 

[Loui1001]

How smooth are his purees? If he's used to completely smooth puréed spoon feeds then the change in texture might be causing a forceful gag. You could try increasing the texture of his spoon feeds gradually, very small changes initially