Please help! Oral aversion

[Heybear23]

Hi there.

Over the weekend, my baby had a fever and a cold. We went to the GP and the Dr prescribed antibiotics for my 6 month old. We've had to force the antibiotics and calpol in him as he wasnt feeding well either. He gets very distressed when we give him medicine. He's much better now thanks to both but we have to finish the antibiotics. Today should be the last day. We also forced to clean his nose out, using nasal spray and then the snot sucker. This all seems to have caused an oral aversion. Hes now scared of everything we give him and he refuses completely. He's feeding better now but still sometimes gets scared of the teat until he sees it for himself. Before he was ill, I used to feed him purrees which he absolutely loved and would always open his mouth for me to feed him but since he's been ill and due to the oral aversion it seems to have caused, he doesn't open his mouth for it anymore. I started blw yesterday, he did reach the food and try and eat it himself which is good. How do I get rid of the oral aversion? I don't want him to be afraid of what I give him. Has this ever happened to any of your babies? If yes, do they get better? I want to feed him purres again where he loves each spoon I offer him, not for him to be scared of what I'm giving him.

Ps. Kind responses only please! I'm a first time mom trying my absolute best with my loved baby

I can understand your frustration, especially if he was loving purées before but I think time is your friend here. It's so soo after the antibiotics finished and he will be fine without the purées for a while.
Just keep offering some finger foods once or twice a day and let him throw it on the floor or sneer it in his hair try eating the food himself. The good thing about finger foods is that he can see them and has done control over if he puts them in his mouth and how much.

Some things you could try are:

Steamed broccoli
Grated cheese
Small pasta shapes
Bread cubes
Banana
Kiwi
Porridge fingers

My DD loved a Yorkshire Pudding at that age and another favourite was homemade sweet potato wedges.

Hope he's feeling better soon

@SiouxsieSiouxStiletto

Thank you for the response! You're right, I think I'm just going to have to wait. He was a bit better yesterday than before but still has the aversion. I'm definitely going to try the finger foods you mentioned. I didn't think about some of them so thank you for the ideas! 🥰

One question, I gave a banana yesterday and he took a big bite out of it and gagged it out. Still getting used to it. I'm very scared of him choking. I ended up mashing it up in fear and then he didn't have it. Is it normal for them to take big bites of food and then gag?

Yes it's totally normal for them to take big bites and gag. They are getting used to chewing and moving the food to the back if the throat and they're both new skills.

Gagging is completely normal. If you are worried about choking have you thought of doing a Paediatric First Aid Course? This video from St John's Ambulance on what to do if your baby chokes should be helpful too.

And you can split a banana lengthways in 3 from the top which might make it a bit easier so hold and chew. There's probably a video of how to do it on YouTube somewhere