10 month old vomits on lumps & finger foods

[Everleigh13]

My 10 month old DD has always had a very sensitive gag reflex. She vomited up her oral vaccines and even Calpol until recently.

She can eat purées and small lumps ok but she gags and vomits on anything with bigger lumps or finger foods.

I understand that gagging is ok and to be expected (I have an older child who did not have this problem and eats fine) but the gagging leads to her vomiting up most of what she’s eaten at the meal. I feel like we’re not progressing. In the last few weeks she has vomited on scrambled eggs, pancakes, sweet potato muffins, banana muffins, biscotti, tomato sauce with pasta stars. The only finger food she manages is melty sticks.

She enjoys food otherwise and likes the foods she is able to eat.

Has anybody else experienced this? Did your child grow out of it and how long did it take? Any tips for improving things?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Bump…

Sorry you've not had responses to this @Everleigh13.

Have you tried posting in the Weaning Section?

@CadyEastman Thank you, it’s kind of you to reply!

I will try a post in the Weaning section at some point. I think this is probably a rare issue and so unless the right person happens to see it it won’t get many responses.

Hiya, this used to happen to my son. I carried on giving him lumpy foods and eventually he got used to them. I do think it took a couple of months though. I think it is just a bit harder for some children to get used to than others. It's messy and I used to make sure I had muslins and baby wipes available at all lunch times.

Yes my son was like this. We were referred to an ENT for other reasons and she said it was because he had giant tonsils(!) which caused a very sensitive gag reflex. Apparently though as you grow your tonsils become comparatively smaller so it stops being a problem.

It was slow though. Lumpy food was the worst I guess because it combines different textures. He was 3ish before he could cope with very hard foods like carrot. He’s 8 now and it hasn’t happened in 1-2 years. Worst bit was in reception when if he gagged it was treated as a vomiting bug and he wasn’t allowed back in for 48 hours. Nursery was a lot more sensible.

If it carries on you could ask for a referral to ENT?

@YourSpryWriter Thanks, it is good to know he grew out of it. And yes, it is so so messy! At every dinner we have vomit on the high chair and floor.

@MizzMarple Thanks, that’s interesting. I have a referral to the speech and language team but will ask the doctor about ENT if it doesn’t improve. Maybe she has giant tonsils too! I’m glad your son improved too. We went out yesterday and all the other children were eating crackers and biscuits and I was spoon feeding my DD purée! I feel sorry for her and am also aware that others are going to think I’m holding her back, because they don’t understand that she just can’t manage to eat those foods.

Hi @Everleigh13
I could have written your post myself. My son is 10 months and we are having the same issues. It’s so disheartening and I feel like I’m really trying but he gags on so many things.

today he managed some bites of egg and spinach muffin and I was so pleased. Next minute I gave him the tiniest spoonful of mince (it was a bit dry) and he vomited it all up. Toast has been another thing that he struggles with.

did your daughter get better as she’s gotten older? Or did you have any further investigations? Planning on calling the HV tomorrow.

Until a child learns to chew and hence stimulate salivary glands to release saliva that will lubricate the food, you need to prepare food that is moist. Try swallowing a tablespoon of dry mince without chewing, it will come up.
cook the mince with some diced fresh tomatoes and half a cup of water. At first , only give a tiny amount at the front of mouth, don't push it half way or a the back. By having something at the front of mouth will stimulate lips and salivary glands.
You want to give toast, dip it in a bit of milk.
The chewing is key to be able to swallow solids, it sends signals as well to food coming and reducing gaging. If you sitting , typing on MN, with the mouth half open and suddenly someone pushes food into your mouth, your epiglottis will close.
If you are using pouches, empty them in a bowl. It is a question of basic anatomy and physiology. Reason why in France, they advise us to start with soups that increase in consistency from very watery to stew-like texture with pieces.
Pouches teach the opposite movement to the tongue, so they impede normal swallowing. When you suck on a pouch, the tongue pressed the content at the top of the mouth , on the palate. When you eat, your tongue pushes food at the back of the mouth .
Make home made broth, and add some spoonfuls to dry food.

Hi @LottieLou3 sorry you’re having the same problem with your son. The good news is that my daughter is doing great. Just today she ate toast, cheerios, crackers, small pasta shapes, chunks of fruit etc.

The referral I had for the speech and language team didn’t go any further because they said we didn’t meet the criteria. They said to get back in touch if we still had problems after her first birthday.

However, we did a few things that worked out:

• We backed off and stopped giving the foods that were making her vomit up everything in her stomach.

• We let her play with putting baby spoons, appropriate teething type toys and easy finger foods like melty sticks in her mouth - I think this might have helped improve her gag reflex.

• After a month or two we started giving the solid foods again in very small sizes (e.g. pea sized pieces of biscotti) and we found she could manage them.

• Then we moved on to things like toast cut into very small squares, crumbled up crackers, pasta stars in a lot of sauce etc and she could manage those too. We still have to cut things up because she isn’t great at taking bites of food from big pieces, but she can eat bigger squares of toast and pieces of muffin now.

She is doing so much better and I can see how she will become a normal eater in time - it’s just taken her longer than average to get the hang of it.

Good luck and I hope your son improves soon!

@Everleigh13 thank you so so much for replying. I’ve spent most of my evening worrying about my LB. Thanks for sharing the things that helped you, I’m going to have a go and probably back off a little with things I know he struggles with and probably up the melty sticks as that’ll be good practice for him.
Again, thanks so much, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one dealing with this xx

@Cormoran thanks for your message. Just to clarify, I would never give him a tablespoon of dry mince. I gave him one tiny strand that had some sauce on. I don’t give him pouches.

You’re welcome! I found backing off for a bit to be a huge relief. It goes against wanting to make sure they progress with weaning but we weren’t getting anywhere with daily vomiting episodes and I was dreading dinners. It doesn’t help that all the weaning cookbooks (and I have most of them) make you think every child should be able to eat lumps and finger foods from early on.