8 month old gagging and vomiting at mealtimes

[Kiwikiss1]

Hello,

My 8 month old DS is becoming more and more distressed at meal times. I am doing a mixture of finger food and spoon feeding. However, in the last 2 weeks or so he has started getting very distressed and crying with the spoon fed food (he does not do this with the finger food but he is not taking very much of it). It seems like he will gag on any lumps and he vomits everything up at least once a day. Mealtimes are not a happy experience for him, he gets very distressed poor thing. Breakfast is weetabix and banana and that is usually fine, but as the day goes on the worse it gets and I think he is starting to anticipate being sick so it is putting him off (I may be wrong but until they can talk we can only go by our gut feelings). I make all his food but I did try a Heinz 7+ tonight and he was sick. I end up feeding him a lot of yogurt as that is the only thing he seems happy to eat. I read somewhere that it was important to give them lumpy food to chew after 7 months as chewing helped the developing muscles for speech. Has anyone else experienced this and perhaps offer some advice? I am getting worried that the situation seems to be getting worse rather than better as time goes on. Thanks in anticipation.

If he is happy with finger food and you can bear the mess I think I'd be tempted to stop worrying about spoon feeding and just do that!

I went through this and sometimes still do. It is awful.

My ds is 4 now and still cant bear some textures in his mouth! It still makes him gag and be sick. I have also noticed that my ds is still not chewing things properly. I have found that there is a lack of help/support when it comes to eating problems.

My ds would not eat finger food at 8 months so I think it is a good sign that your ds eats finger food. I agree with AndIfeedEm it might be a good idea to stick to finger foods for a while. If you are worried maybe your HV or GP could give you some advice?

Hopefully things will get better over the next few months.

Does he have a history of reflux? Babies who do often have an overpronounced gag reflex. They also frequently end up with oral aversions. Dd's was so bad she would gasp and choke on fresh air if it was windy enough and purees had to be the consistency of broth rather than yoghurt. If reflux is suspected both bananas and dairy should be avoided and in dds case we were advised no finger foods til 9 months. Dieticians are more worried about accidental aspiration of food than they are about delayed chewing. Dd was fine by 9 months on thin purees and chunky finger foods but lumpy purees always made her choke. Personally I'd ditch them.

DS has reflux & tongue tie, both of which can cause gagging & vomiting. At 18 months he feeds himself now but will choke and gag if I try and feed him.

Personally I would stick with just the finger food if that's what he's happy with. Still provide a spoon mushed stuffand see if he will feed himself.

Stick with what works for now. I can always tell when my ds is teething as lumpy food is a no go. He's over a year now, but we still revert to puree, yogurts and weetabix regularly. He always go back to normal after a couple of weeks so i would try not to worry. Also remember that just because the books say something doesn't mean that every baby will follow suit.

You need to investigate the possibility of tongue tie. It can cause exactly this type of problem.

DS1 had undiagnosed tongue tie until he was 5yo. He didn't choke or gag on most foods as a baby, but he swallowed things without chewing because it was very difficult for him, and I would find whole peas and the like in his nappy.

How did breast/bottle feeding go? Any problems that might point to a restriction of the tongue?

Thank you everyone. Mawbroon, I did bottle feed and he has always been quite an unsettled baby (especially the first 6 months). I had him on infant gaviscon because the HV and I thought it might be silent reflux. Would a HV or doctor diagnose tongue tie?

My experience is that your GP would have to refer your dc to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor. My ds has an obvious tongue tie but at the moment they are saying it is not causing the eating problems. We are waiting on a Speech and Language Therapist to assess my DS's eating and speech and if they decide it would be beneficial to cut the tongue tie then the consultant will cut it.

My ds has some sensory issues so the doctors seem to think his gagging and being sick is more down to him not liking the textures. But that does not explain the chewing difficulties. So I will be pushing for the tongue tie to be cut.

Good luck op!

Unfortunately, many HCPs do not fully understand about tongue tie, especially posterior ties. I'm afraid to say that this even includes some HCPs who specialise in dealing with ties

Just to add that tongue tie can often cause symptoms which look like reflux. I second the recommendation to get him checked for tongue tie, and if he has it, get it lasered by one of the people mentioned above.

mawbroon & minipie, do you think I would be safe to get ds's tongie tie cut at the local children's hospital? I think I may be able to persuade them to do it. Is there a risk that something could go wrong?

Sorry op for hijacking your thread! i hope things improve with your ds's eating soon and you dont have the problems I have had.

The risks are very small in terms of blood loss or infection.

The risk is that the tie is not released properly and it makes little or no difference to your ds. This is what happened to ds1 when I mention a botched revision. He wasn't harmed, but his ties were not fully released. Saying that, it was released enough to help relieve his symptoms (gastric stuff)

How old is your DS? Beyond a few weeks, many HCPs will insist on doing it under local anaesthetic which is also not without risk.

DS1 is almost 8yo now and if I had his baby time again, knowing what I know now about ties, I would have gone straight to one of the dentists who I mentioned in my previous post. It is fairly expensive (roughly £300 to £400) but worth every single penny IMO.

I think your DS is 4 years old? I don't know anything about revising tongue ties at that sort of age but I would imagine the hospital wouldn't do it if it was really risky from a health perspective.

I do know that when tts are cut in older babies, there can be a "relearning" period where they have to learn to use their newly freed tongue, so during that period it can actually be harder for them to feed etc. I imagine this could be the same and perhaps even more so for your DS?

yes minipie DS is 4 and the hospital say that his tongue moves enough for it not to be causing any problems. I do worry about DS having to relearn how to use his newly freed tongue. You are right in saying that this could be a problem for my ds. So I dont know what to do for the best. Perhaps the doctors are correct and the tongue tie is not causing the problem.

Mawbroon - thanks for all the info. I feel the exact same as you, if I had my time again with ds as a baby I would have had something done about his tongue tie straight away.

op- please let us know what happens with your ds. Hopefully it is a phase that will pass and everything will be ok.

You know what though, DS1's tongue appeared normal. He could stick it out, lift it up, there was no heart shape or dent in the end, his speech was great.

It was the back of his tongue that was tied down, and unless you know what you are looking for, it would be dismissed as normal.

Before he was properly revised, I could see his tonsils in their entirety when he opened his mouth. After his second revision (which was done by Dr Roberts with laser) his tongue now sits really high up at the back and I can't see his tonsils at all and would need to use a tongue depressor to see them.

Posterior tongue tie really sorts out those HCPs who understand from those who don't.