Advice needed on mummy fear of choking

[Ellie18]

Really hoping some mums have some advice - my little man is 7 months old and i'm really lucky in that hes great with food and is so eager to try everything its a struggle to keep him away from things hes not allowed. He also had a reaction to egg so all egg is banned until hes 12mths.

My problem is that i have such a fear of him choking - i know he will and its an important part of him learning to chew - i also know i musnt show my fear in front of him but i'm so nervous about giving him finger foods and have no idea where to start.

Hes good with rusks though my heart stops every time he breaks off a big bit and he's currently happy munching his way through slightly lumpy stage 2 baby food but i really need some advice?

It's hard to relax about it I know.

Does he gag on his food? What happens when he does? What do you do?

If dd starts to gag, I just encourage her and reassure her and she sorts it out herself. She's only been sick twice, normally she just carries on chewing whatever it was.

The gag reflex is totally normal. You don't need to do anything - pats on the back can often make the situation worse. You only need to do that if they are unable to breathe.

Make sure he's sitting upright as well.

The organix stage two crisps are great as they go all soggy. Toast is better than bread. Others will be along to give you more ideas.

Can you do a baby/child First Aid course, just to reassure yourself really that you could deal with a choking situation just in case the worst did come to the worst?
www.sja.org.uk/sja/training-courses/courses-for-the-general-public/els-for-children-and-infants.aspx

I was going to suggest a 1st aid course too. I moved from next door to a large hospital to the back end of nowhere when DD1 was a baby, and took a course to reassure myself that I could do something useful in an emergency.

In addition to the excellent advise here I'd add that you can start giving finger food in what's called a "safe feeder" these are small pouches which are safely attached to a ring which your baby can hold. When he chews the food into mush he gets all the goodness of the food item but you don't need to worry about chooking. I used this with my dd until she was around 10 months when I was confident that she had grow large enough to deal with larger pieces of apple etc. She has gagged on several occations and has thrown up as a result but on those occations I've tried to stay calm and let her sort it out before going to help her. Stroking her back and talking to her has kept her calm and perhaps that's helped her to get the bit out rather than further back in the throat. The fear hasn't gone away though and I don't think it will until she's at uni... Best of luck

Thanks everyone, my husband and i did attend a baby first aid class, just an NCT one but it didnt seem to alleviate my fears much! the poouches sound interesting - does anyone recommend any foods to begin with apart from toast ?

You might want to read the Baby Led Weaning website which is a way of weaning babies straight onto solids rather than purees from about six months. There is a lot of sensible advice on there about dealing with anxiety about choking and what foods are good to try.

Also remember that gagging is not choking

The baby led weaning site is fantastic - i really like the idea and definately think i have been lumping gagging and choking into the same pile. Am going to try it tomorrow when my husband is here - hes far calmer than i am!

Thanks everyone, i have never used this site before and its great

We did blw and ds gagged on most things until he was about 9mo, it never got to the stage of actual choking (though I was worried a couple of times), he would just bring it back out and then put it back in again! As long as you watch him carefully and don't leave him unsupervised then you should be fine. I found that fruit such as ripe mango or melon worked quite well for ds as he could suck/chew at it without gagging. The worst for gagging for my ds was carrots (he still can't eat them without gagging at 1yo).

Isn't it a great site? It's run by Aitch who posts here I found it such an easy way to feed my DC and I loved watching them exploring food - when you feed them finger food, they examine it before they put it into their mouths which is just brilliant to see. My DS never gagged, the only thing that ever caused him any trouble was a particuarly large blueberry which when you think about it is about baby windpipe sized so I recommend cutting roundish fruits/veg in half. Otherwise you can sit them with a piece of toast and butter in their highchair while you do the washing up or whatever and just enjoy watching them learning about food

Hi, i was the same with my DS i dont think i gave the poor boy bread till he was 2 lol, all hard stuff was out the question my heart would stop everytime a little bit broke off!!

As a result he is a pain in the bottom at eating , my fault entirely.

My DD i gave her everything and learnt that of they do choke they mostly cough it up and they are very clever, i never really blended her food either just mashed it she is brilliant at eating

Good luck