Introducing lumpy food

[BionicEmu]

I'm a bit worried I've mucked my poor baby up with weaning, and would really like some advice about chewing!

My DS was 7 weeks premature and since then has suffered with severe reflux and constipation and problems with poor weight gain. His paediatrician advised me to start weaning him at 4 months, which he surprisingly took to really well, he wolfs down an enormous amount of pureed food, and it's helped both his reflux and his weight gain.

He's now 7 months old (actual age), having three large meals a day (the HV was surprised at how much he ate!), and only 2 milk feeds a day - and finally climbing up the weight chart, yay!

The thing is, he will not tolerate any lumps in his foods. Every time I try even the slightest lumps he just gags and spits them out. I've tried giving him finger food-type stuff (cooked carrot sticks etc) but he just sucks them a bit then drops them. But then he's only started grabbing for stuff and putting it near his mouth in the past week. What's the best way to introduce lumpier food? How does he learn to chew? And what age should he be starting to chew? Have I mucked him up by not getting him to chew before he started eating so much? (Although not sure how I could have stopped that - paediatrician told me "as long as his mouth keeps opening just keep shovelling it in" :))

Any advice gratefully received!

[pramsgalore4]

Hi, my little boy would not eat lumpy food at all, when ever i tried even the slightest lumps he would gag and sick it up, i had to give him 4 month baby food until he was just over a year as making my own if a missed the smallest of lumps he would gag and sick it up, no one knows why he was like this, i would once a week try him with some slighly lumpy food to see if he would take it but everytime he would gag and sick it up it was quite scary, you just have to keep trying, my ds started eating lumpy food all of a sudden and went on really quickly to eating everything, hv was useless and did not know what to suggest other than keep trying, but do keep trying as not chewing can affect their speach, try giving him mashed banana or scrambled egg as these are soft lumps, just keep trying he will eat lumps just in his own time

[BionicEmu]

Thankyou! I'll just keep persevering then and hoping that he'll suddenly get the hand of it. I was worrying I was doing something wrong, and didn't want to scar him for life (yes, he's my PFB!).

[Flisspaps]

DD is BLW and didn't chew until well after 7mo - don't worry. Most food in stick form was sucked (you should see how grey a piece of beef can go).

[MaMattoo]

I am so relieved to read this. I have a 11mo who refuses to eat any lumps..ONLY pureed food..and he is happy to gulp it down in that form. So i have introduced him to all kinds of tastes from herbs to garlic and tomato sauces to chopped parsley and broccoli...will eat everything. But any small lumps and out it all comes. Every time! I have started giving him fruits in the mesh feeder as he can now hold things quite well (and also throw them [:o] and he now chews on that quite hard..am hoping he shall do a transition at some point. am fed up of washing off sick from various surfaces. He does love to eat soft berries in the feeder..only has 2.5 teeth as of now. living in hope.

[FloweryBoots]

If you want to try finger food again have you tried things like toast fingers, bread sticks or rice cakes. My DS loves to feed himself but for a long time would not touch fruit or veg finger food, I think he just found it too slimey and slippery, but he loved toast and bread sticks, and later rice cakes. It's amazing how they can suck down a bit of toast!

[BionicEmu]

Rice cakes might be worth a go, I'm struggling a bit because paediatrician said not to give DS gluten before he's a year old. My sister and I were intolerant to gluten until we were a year old, and he's already got enough tummy problems as it is (currently waiting to see if he needs surgery, argh).

I guess I'm just confused as to when he "should" be progressing - by which I mean, at what point do I start to worry. It's all confusing as he was 7 weeks prem but started weaning at 18 weeks, so started weaning at 11 weeks corrected age. He's now 7 months, but corrected just over 5 months - so in my mind we started weaning nearly 3 months ago, so I figure he should be tolerating at least some lumps, but then he's developmentally only 5 months old, so maybe not. Well, there's an insight into my v. confused brain!

Basically, thankyou all, I shall just persevere. It's reassuring to know there's nothing magical that I just haven't though of doing!

[MockingbirdsNotForSale]

I think you may have hit the nail on the head about corrected age. If he's happy I'd stick with the purees at when he's 6-7mths corrected age you may find him happier to take finger food.

[BionicEmu]

I know this was a while ago, but I'm so relieved I wanted to share!
DS is now 8 months old and last week he just suddenly "got" chewing. Yesterday he started biting chunks off too, not just sucking the food. Rice cakes seem to have encouraged him enough to try to work it all out, and the look of confusion on his little face as he was sucking it and a bit came off was priceless, but he managed to work it all out.

Tried banana this morning, and instead of just mashing it in his hands he started biting and chewing.

So yep, all of a sudden he just "got it". He also started crawling this week and now has teeth 4,5,6 & 7 coming through - big week for him! :)