To freak out about weaning?

[Bathtime17]

I'm a FTM and we've started weaning our DS who is almost 6 months. Pureed vegetables/baby rice isn't appealing to him and he only takes a spoonful before refusing anymore.

However he loves shoving everything and anything in his mouth so we give him carrot sticks and Apple slices which he gums.

He is always grabbing out for our food so the other day I gave him a crust from my piece of toast. He happily munched on it until I saw it was disintegrating into bits in his mouth.

Suddenly I was seized with a blind panic and worried he wasn't ready to swallow bits of food yet and that he would choke so I told him to spit it out and when he didn't reached into his mouth and grabbed it out.

DP was watching this like I was mad and DS was annoyed that I took his food away. I felt like such an idiot but am so scared he will choke.

How can I get over this anxiety? What did you do when weaning?

I waited till 6 months. Wait till he can sit unaided and keep his neck straight. Toast is fine. I wouldn't bother with baby rice. Fills them up with very little nutritional value.

I've just started weaning DC2 and, while more relaxed than with DC1, am still finding it pretty alarming! The thing is, babies have a really sensitive gag reflex. The food comes back up if it's causing trouble, it sounds terrifying but really doesn't bother them at all.

I did a baby first aid course which reassured me that I would be able to deal with it if they did choke, but never needed it with DC1 (and hoping I won't with DC2 either).

Just keep going, try to keep calm (I know easier said than done) and maybe look into learning what to do if baby does choke, so you can feel prepared.

Do a baby first aid course, it'll help ease your worries if you know what to do in an emergency. It can be normal for them to gag when learning how to chew/swallow and because they sometimes get really excited and shove too much food in at once (then they slowly spit out a chewed up wodge of mush). Gagging is noisy and they'll clear it on their own, it looks scary but it's fine. Actual choking is silent but that's where supervision and the first aid course comes in.

We did a baby first aid course.

Hi
I was late weaning my now 16 month old I was worried. She has had a few times of choking and although I took the babies first aid course I always seemed to freeze if someone else was around.
She choked on some food at 13 months and I was alone and I snapped in to action. You will find you go in to automatic reaction mode. Babies gag reflexes are amazing. She's 16 months now and still struggles sometimes but know you will be fine. Just go at your own pace x

They're meant to swallow it! Sounds like he's caught on quick and toast is the best!

Sit on your hands. Do a first aid course. Watch YouTube videos that show the difference between gagging (unpleasant but fine) and choking. Relax, the best thing about a baby who feeds themselves is that you get to have a cup of tea while they get on with it!

Google baby led weaning. Toast would have been fine

Thanks for your replies guys. I think I should sign up for a baby first aid course and just try to relax about it!

It is hard - DS also preferred finger foods from the off and he did gag a lot at the beginning but I had to let him get on with it.

Studies have found babies given whole foods from the start aren't at higher risk of choking than those traditionally weaned with purees:
www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2016/09/20/health/baby-led-weaning-choking-risk/index.html

Just FYI, though - very hard things like carrot sticks and apple slices aren't recommended as first foods (if you look at that article I just posted they were on the avoid list) because they don't break down so could be a hazard if they broke the wrong size bit off. DS is 9 months and good at chewing now but we still microwave his apple slices to make them softer.

Also - and I know it's hard not to do - sticking your fingers in their mouth while there's food in there is actually quite dangerous because they have a good gag reflex but you can shove food past it and so actually make choking more likely, not less. Even if a child is actually choking you're only supposed to put your fingers in their mouth if you can see what they're choking on and can easily extract it, as otherwise there's a risk of pushing it further down and so making the situation worse.

I started weaning my son at 6 months and he wasn't that interested till he got to 7 months really I just went with what he wanted now he's 8 months and eating really well I do spoon feed and he has finger food too.

Doing a first aid course is a great idea, st. John's ambulance also has some great advice on their website.

It's useful to know the difference between gagging, a normal part of learning to swallow and choking, a blocked airway. If they are red and noisy - coughing, spluttering, that's gagging, they are dealing with it themselves but keep an eye on them. If they are blue and silent, unable to make any noise then they need first aid.

Toast is great. I wouldn't give raw carrot sticks to a 6 month old in case of choking, cook them first. Slices of steamed potato and sweet potato are nice, lightly steamed peppers/ broccoli/ cauliflower/ etc too. We built up a range of foods one by one and then just did real food; we quite quickly got to veg in cheesy sauce on toast, mashed potatoes with topping, porridge, lemon chicken with steamed veg, etc. My DS loves fruit and oats, so we make oaty bars in the oven with whatever cooked fruit, oats, butter; when he had happily eaten the allergens with no problem we added a little milk plus egg to get a better consistency and use less butter.

• Read up about baby choking and get a first aid course if you aren't confident. Chop cherry tomatoes, grapes and bluberries into 4.
• Write a list of all the fruit, veg, meat, cereals etc that you want your baby to try, mark off the things DS tried, that can give you inspiration for meals.
• Understand from the NHS website the allergens and test them with a big gap from other new food: dairy (see the milk ladder for the order to try, hard cheese first), egg, shellfish, nuts etc.
• Use it to be more adventurous with your shopping and cooking, try to share meals. DS joined in with what we ate quite quickly once we'd gone through giving him tasters, we just made dishes that were more accessible to him e.g. a family we all like berry pancakes (no sugar nor honey), mixed veg and potato thick omelette, crumpets, fruit weetabix, pasta, chicken or bean burrito, grilled aubergine (tiny amount of oil and paprika), steak (thin slices for DS) with steamed veg etc. We just put the chillies on the side. Generally, a light batter mix (flour, egg, a little butter then milk) can hold together loads of different pre-steamed vegetables and small bits of meat plus cheese, which is easy to batch cook for baby meals out that he can hold (while still getting a good range of food). You'll be amazed what baby gums can munch through.

I have three DC and hated weaning - I was just so afraid they would choke!

Its just something you have to get over