how do i stop ds yelling and shaking his head with a mouthful of food - i'm terrified he's going to choke!

[docket]

ds (23months) has a habit of piling loads of food in his mouth and then shaking his head from side to side with his mouth open yelling and singing. Today he gagged on his food as a result, I completely panicked (am completely paranoid about choking anyway) and yelled at him. Then he got upset and I felt awful. I've tried telling him several times not to do it (calmly) but he doesn't seem to understand, can anyone think of a way of getting the message across? I'm like a tightly coiled spring at his mealtimes and I hate it.

TIA

[lazycow]

This is difficult - This would scare me too and I even try and avoid ds laughing too much when he has a full mouth in case he chokes.

When he does this with his mouth open could you remove the food from his mouth with your fingers?

Do it as calmly as possible yourself and then explain that he needs to be calm when eating.

Or possibly could you destract him with something while he is eating - maybe a toy or book or even (strike me down) a bit of TV/video.

Sorry if you have tried all these but maybe someone else will have some other ideas.