Is it ok that my 8month old cannot manage lumpy foods

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My dd is 8 month old and as a baby had acid reflux, which Gaviscon helped. As soon as I introduced food at just over 5 months old she completely refused milk, so had to quickly get her onto eating 3 meals a day, which all went ok.
She now has porridge/cereal mixed with milk instead of water then a yogurt and quarter of a jar of fruit. Lunch is 4 month old jar, yogurt and half to a whole jar of fruit. Tea is again now cereal with milk and yogurt and if im lucky a bit of fruit jar. She is not keen on rice puddings or custard so i stick to yogurt to get dairy into her. She will now drink 6oz of Goodnight milk which will then see her through till morning.
The problem I have is if she eats finger foods at any time around her meals she will gag and throw up everything so you have to start again. this happened an hour and a half after her meal the other day when i tried her on a biscuit. I have tried my own food and jar food which is lumpy and both have the same effect she gags and throws up. Today i tried a 7 month jar and she ate a quarter, and really gagged and I thought she would be sick but instead she just refused any more food. She doesn't even need to gag some times all she has to do is cough and that can make her sick.
I saw the GP who gave her medicine which did bugger all and due to see them again tommorow.
Should i be worried as this is really not helping my already depressed state at the moment?

It is ok. And it will get better!

My DS (now 21 months) refused 'lumpy' food. So he had smooth purees until 12/13 months then went straight onto bite sized bits of 'proper' food - we missed out the lumpy, mashed, finely chopped stages altogether.

First of all, give yourself and your DD a break. Offer her the food she likes and will eat. Then after a week or so, slowly start again with the finger food, keeping it as soft as possible (really well cooked veg, or maybe those Organix crisps which melt in the mouth). Keep persevering (gently!), and if your DD is still struggling in a few months time then head back to the GP or HV.

I am really trying not to let it stress us out, but when GP and HV keep telling me the importance of her chewing etc, I find I am trying again and clearing up sick! I feel like a bad parent constantly jar feeding as I home cooked everything with my DS but I can't get it smooth enough for her with the chicken, meats and pasta she needs. I just so tired of it all!

quavers. (or the organix ones above if you want to spend more)

give her 'bite and dissolve' to ease her into it.

but reasonably normal, tbh.

just watch the salt content - not too many at a time. just here and there.

she's so tiny, goodness only knows why the hv is being so anal.

dd2 couldn't do 'thin' stuff or lumps (two textures in one spoonful - it's not surprising some babies struggle tbh), so went straight from thick purees to sandwiches. (well, via quavers)

i'm not a mentalist btw. dd2 has had a specialist feeding slt from birth as she has cp and a lot of oromotor problems. i thought the slt was crazy for suggesting we weaned on quavers, but she was right. any bite and dissolve stuff is fine. we also didn't realise until she was 4 that she has no lateral movement of her tongue. her 'chewing' was to squish food on the roof of her mouth.

at 8 she eats a completely normal diet. (and no quavers)

I found good old rusks to be good as well, as they have a 'solid' food in their hand but they can suck at it and it dissolves in the mouth, mine found it a good transitional thing plus it gave him a little bit of control over what went in his mouth which he wanted from early on - he's 25m and still will go crazy for a rusk in his hand as a snack now and then. they have vitamins in them I believe :) my DS was one for gagging and throwing up alot as well at mealtimes, distressing isn't it? GP told me its just a gag reflex rather than being sick as we understand it for adults, and part of the learning curve for alot of kids when learning to chew. I can't say I got immune to it as such, but it does pass. Don't worry about having to give them lumpy food, some kids don't really like lumps and go straight from smooth to whole pieces of food. I used to whizz up banana and advocado and give it to him in a bowl, nice and smooth fairly thick puree, tons of goodness in it and I know it sounds like a strange mixture but he used to absolutely love it! that was one of my wonder baby foods, I didn't do jars (I wonder if I put it on toast now he'd eat it haha), also used to do sweet potato and carrot (cooked then pureed in the blender) as even if he ate one dollop of that he got alot of goodness from it. also used to do a casserole in the slo cooker, beef or chicken, potatoes, gravy, loads of veg, then blend the lot till smooth and he always ate that up too... your LO is still little so don't worry about bigger foods yet :)

oh PS the best thing I bought when he was littler was a very good blender! as he was gagging, I kept things smooth till he was more used to tastes and then moved onto to bread and banana slices etc

PPS Goodies oaty bars are brilliant once she is chewing a bit more, no sugar/additives, just oats and fruit, a solid food but soft/chewy ifyswim ; even is DS is ill/off his food he will still eat one of those :)

i have a 10month old and he went through a phase of only eating puree fruit or finger foods. he only wanted smooth puree foods but i kept offering finger foods and suddenly his appetite has increased so he's happy to try lumpier foods.

his favourite are the heinz biscotti finger biscuits, they seem to dissolve quite well. what about chunks of soft fruit like pear in one of those mesh feeders?

Just to add - I gave my 21 month old DS carrot and parsnip mash with his dinner as an experiment...he gagged on the first spoonful and refused any more! But wolfed down his lamb burgers and green beans.

I'm not keen on the mashy texture myself. It's almost a bit pre-chewed...yuck! :)

Try not to worry, it will get better.

We are just coming out the other side with DS2 at 14 months.

He was always a sicky baby but once we started weaning it was a nightmare. He gagged so easily on anything. I have posted on her a few times about him.

We were referred to a feeding advisor who as someone else mentioned said to try the bite and dissolve food. Things like rusks, cakes, chocolate buttons broken up, cheerios, quavers, wafers.

The feeding advisor suggested trying these foods then trying more chewy stuff again. TBH we still aren't completely there but he is rarely sick now. He still has a soft diet and won't eat pieces of meat, fruit or veg. Apart from strawberries.

I got really stressed with it too. He was a skinny little thing but weight never dropped enough for them to be concerned. The last month or so since he had been eating better I can see his cheeks filling out.

Although today a friend gave him some flapjack and he vommed everywhere. Its amazing how calm you become about it!

Oh and I've used more jars this time round as DS2 seems to tolerate them better.

Also I think the chewing theory is overrated. DS2 doesn't talk yet but has always made loads of different sounds. But thats just me!

Take care.

Thank you for all advice, I have tried the organix disolve crisps which she loves and most time does not throw up. I have tried rusks and the biscotti biscuits, I know she loves them and gets excited when I give them to her, however it always ends the same, covered in sick. She is so desperate to get her hands on her big brothers sandwiches or anything I am eating, I feel sorry for her always having to say no. I have decided to start to cook my own food again and try to make it smooth which will make no difference to DD but will make me feel I am doing a better job.

Dd2 wouldn't ever eat lumpy food. She'd have the complete slop 4 month jars, even home made wasn't really thin enough for her; or finger food.

She is now 8 and eats like a horse.

dd2's gag reflex was awesome. (particularly given that she was born with no suck, swallow or gag, when they came in, the gag came in with a vengeance) right up until 5 or 6yo we would always make her have at least two or three spoonfuls of something to see if it was going to stay down. the first one always resulted in a gag or retch (and often regurgitation), sometimes the second, but she needed a good few attempts with a texture to get the hang of it. and i'm talking about in the same meal, literally wipe it up, prepare her for the next mouthful and try again. it was just a matter of her gradually learning how to deal with different textures and 'over-ride' the gag reflex.

she was just very sensitive to textures and different tastes/ smells. we did desensitise her gradually. the very very worst was mashed potato.

when she was teeny we used infant gaviscon on and off to try and combat a little of the more refluxy type stuff. but i think if you have a refluxy baby then a heightened gag reflex is just one more thing to overcome.

if she's bringing it back up again straight away (rather than an hour or so later during the digestive process) i honeslty wouldn't worry too much. just persevere.