Eight month old keeps choking

[Loulouhels]

My eight month old little boy is having trouble with finger food. I've been giving him cheese sticks, organix rusks (suitable from 7 months), banana and other fruit and veg and he puts too much in his mouth and ends up choking. I have introdued lumps in his normal food and do not really puree anymore and tend to mash but bigger lumps he just swallows and doesn't chew although this doesn't seem to casue the choking.

He doesn't do this all the time but he just doesn't seem to chew and swallows big lumps. On four or five occasions he has had trouble breathing and cannot cough so I have to hold him on my knee and smack his back to dislodge the food which always comes back up with sick. I do this very calmly and he is quite happy to continue eating after the event so it hasn't affected him but unfortunately it is making me rather anxious.

Any ideas of how to prevent this or good foods to use to get him used to chewing. Anyone else experienced this and does it eventually stop?

[pinata]

have you tried holding the food for him in such a way that he can only bite off a little bit? I know it kind of defeats the purpose of finger food in some ways, but i do this sometimes with DD (9mo) for things that are a bit slippery, as otherwise she ends up taking big mouthfuls and then gagging

this might help him get used to chewing, and then gradually he can start holding the food himself

another thing i do, which helped DD's chewing, is peel a ripe peach or plum or similar and hold it for her and she can eat it like an adult would. it helped her get the hang of biting and chewing and she seems to love it, plus, no danger of lumps