To worry my baby will choke?

[Macdaddylonglegs]

Ds2 is 24weeks, I've been trying him with purees for a couple of weeks but he seems pretty disinterested despite trying to grab at anything I'm eating. He's breastfeeding every 1-2 hours even overnight and is a big baby, so I definitely think could do with starting on the weaning journey. Decided to try BLW and he seemed to love it. Started with toast fingers, he was so excited but kept gagging. It was way too much for my nerves as I just kept picturing him choking! I took the toast away and he cried, bless him. Too soon to try BLW? Toast the wrong choice? Or do I need to man up?!

[bumbleymummy]

It doesn't have to be smooth puree. We mashed a lot of early food so there was a bit of a soft, lumpy texture (I agree with the earlier poster that avocado is great!) and gave DS his own spoon. He used his fingers too but he got the hang of the spoon pretty quick :)

[orangebird69]

I'm doing puree. But my son still has no fear about eating finger food at all. He still gags and throws up. I'm not worried. I was pureed so to speak. I have fine motor skills and eat anything put infront of me.

[allowlsthinkalot]

Gagging is not choking though, it's the opposite of choking.

I know someone who had a real phobia of her child choking. It made him incredibly fussy about texture.

I pureed for my first child and it took him ages to accept whole pieces of fruit.

My next three had the same food as us from day one.

[blueyedboy]

You should go with your own instincts.
Ignore others, who think that they are right.
My friend's son DIED choking, this has made me a complete nervous wreak.
My dc is 2, loves his food, but I do cut everything up small.
I never leave him alone when eating, we always eat at the table, he knows the routine and enjoys it.
As Sal says above, he sees us eating and wants the same, does the same.
I waited so long for a baby, there is no way that I would take any risks!

[SouperSal]

And by eating together the baby sees what you're supposed to do when eating - chew.

[SouperSal]

That's easily done by being with the baby while they're eating and being aware of what you're looking for (I personally wouldn't have attempted BLW Without having read the Rapley book which has lots of info about this).

[RoboticSealpup]

Totally agree, lurk. All children are different and some are more prone to gagging and choking so it's not helpful at all to be told that you're worrying about nothing. Choking does happen sometimes, it's not some myth, and trying to prevent dangerous situations is entirely sensible, surely?

[MostlyLurk]

My personal opinion is that the peer pressure/boasting ("DS just couldn't get enough of quails egg on sourdough at six months") is dangerous.

I am also highly sceptical about the non-medically trained people who go on about the gag reflex being further forward etc etc. at telling OP to man up, too.

Just go slowly and don't push things further thank you feel comfortable. Purées are fine

[converseandjeans]

Gave my son some toast when he was 6 months - sat in a baby walker between myself & DH and he choked on it & we had to call on the childminder opposite to help get it out & an ambulance came. Very scary as he was silent - no gagging. I am now always convinced that every time I hear a cough or a splutter he is choking. So I don't think you are being OTT & I am fairly relaxed about many things. So I would agree with other posters about trying softer food like banana or raisins.
soupersal that's great your baby found it easy but the OP stated that her baby gags, so her situation is different.

[orangebird69]

Glad it was so simple for you SouperSal..
My ds had 6 teeth at 26 weeks..literally bites off way more than he can chew, gags and vomits. EVERY TIME. Have a . I'm sure you won't choke on it.

[Jodie1982]

Im a bag of nerves with blw. Nervous wreck. I pureed till I felt more at ease thay mine wouldn't choke so easily and could chew their food. My 17mth old has a never ending pit and it's everything and anything.
I cut up grapes and strawberries, apples very thinly.
Maybe leave the toast of the menu for now or just put little bits in ur dc mouth, that's what I did anyway.

[SouperSal]

Interestingly, my DD at 5 is suspicious of anything mushy or mixed up - she likes her veg al dente and won't touch mashed potato. While she always liked toast she was about 3 before she would touch bread, croissants etc. She just had an aversion to anything without texture or strong flavours!

[PumpkinPie2013]

I suffered terribly with anxiety around blw. Ut got to the point where I could only feed my son if either my husband was in (he's first aid trained) or the doctor next door was in.

No amount of anyone telling me gagging is normal made any difference.

After two weeks of trying, I gave up and did purees until I felt comfortable trying lumps and finger food.

Contrary to what many people said, my ds is not at all fussy(he's 2.5 years now) - will eat anything, stops eating when full, uses cutlery perfectly and has excellent speech so not doing blw made no difference to him and saved my sanity!

By all means try blw again if you feel comfortable doing so but if it doesn't work for you, don't worry at all - imo it's not all it's cracked up to be.

Good luck!

[GoldPlatedBacon]

Similar to Robotic my children centre runs a paediatric first aid for £5 which I did and found very reassuring. My dd has a high palate and seems to have a sensitive gag reflex so she gags everyday so I'm use to it now given she's 12 months but last week she was eating a breadstick when she began gagging but it didn't quite sound right. I automatically picked her up, threw her over my knees and smacked her back. It was just a reflex reaction.

I felt under a lot of pressure from some friends and family to do blw but, whilst I love the concept, it just wasn't for my dd. She was much happier with mashed food but she's progressing nicely and will eat things like cherry tomatoes and grapes sliced up in quarters and harder veg life Carrot and cucumber, although not chicken nuggets life my friend's son who is 2 weeks younger. She's way off that but going slowly works best for us.

My dd isn't hugely fond of bread. As others say it becomes quite gluey but she'll happily eat pancakes and muffins.

[Cheby]

Gagging is totally normal with BLW/solid food. There's a really good bit in the Gill Rapely book that explains the difference between gagging and choking; essentially when someone is truly choking they are not moving air so it's silent (the reason never to leave babies and toddlers alone while eating), but if they're coughing and gagging then they're moving air so they are ok.

I had to learn to sit on my hands a bit, we DD didn't go near a purée, we had one near choking incident, but she was 3 years old at the time so nothing to do with BLW.

[Peppatina]

I had PND with dd and had a felt real terror when it came to weaning.

Even with antidepressants I was imagining her choking and dying in my arms again and again and again.

Some of my friends were very pushy about blw and kept trying to give her solid food I wasn't comfortable with.

I went to my go and she told me to just blend my dinners and feed her mush for as long as I needed to and felt comfortable. Which turned out to be when she was 18 months

She started nursery then and is indistinguishable in her eating habits to my friends children who were blw.

What I'm trying to say is feed her how you want to. They all mostly end up being the same anyway. 💐

[ghostyslovesheep]

I used something like this initially www.safetots.co.uk/Baby-Feeding/Weaning/c44_57_171/p5477/Munchkin-Fresh-Food-Feeder/product_info.html because she liked to shove food in!

[TitusAndromedon]

It is kind of heart-stopping, but every time one of mine (I have twins) gags on a bit of food I think of it as them learning their limitations. They are eight months today and they are so much more confident with eating. It's amazing how quickly they've progressed in just a couple of months. They now strip the flesh off a slice of tomato and spit the skin out like pros.

Just keep a close eye on him and keep offering different foods. Ripe strawberries and fingers of watermelon are a particular favourite here at the moment. I also recommend the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook, also by Gill Rapley, which has some of the basic information about BLW and lots of great ideas for food.

[Macdaddylonglegs]

Sounds like your dd took to BLW really well Soupersal, which is great. I tried again for dinner and in the space of 2 mins he gagged about 10 times! I definitely feel more relaxed about it though, as he seems pretty good at this gagging malarkey!!! I guess it will just take him a bit of time to get used to this eating business!

[SouperSal]

I didn't think rice cakes were advised for babies and children now.

[SouperSal]

She had marmite toast fingers on her 6 month birthday. And jelly and blancmange fingers

[SouperSal]

Gosh, so much angst over something so simple!

DD just ate off our plates from about 5.5 months. Including big chunky pub chips, pheasant (off DH's plate), steak, sticky toffee pudding, toast with all manner of toppings. If she could hold it she tried eating it. We never cut anything into small bits. She gagged occasionally but never came close to choking.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

Toast? Really? Try avocado and banana

Could you sound any more sanctimonious? Really? Try suggesting things without sounding so sniffy.

Nothing wrong with some puree OP if your nerves can't take it and work up to toast later on

[LaurieMarlow]

You'll get so used to gagging, you won't even believe.

The biggest thing to get your head around is that gagging is not choking - and the difference is startling.

Some foods are much more chokeable than others. I seem to remember googling a list of the worst offenders and being particularly vigilant with those.

[2nds]

Steer clear of toast for now as it can be chewy and sticky. Try banana, peeled and thinly sliced Apple, or basically anything that can easily be chewed up and swallowed.

Grapes and baby tomatoes are perfect for weaning provided that they are cut up. Yoghurt is OK from 7 months I think? What about rice cakes?

Bread is a bit stodgy too imo for the start of weaning. I would reintroduce toast a bit further down the line.