8 month old choking

[SalsaP]

My 8 month old DS is making me very anxious at the moment because he keeps choking! It is happening increasingly frequently on his bottle which is confusing as I haven't changed any of the equipment. Most of the time I can hear it about to happen so can preempt it. For instance, I notice that he hasn't made a breathing sound for a few sucks so I pull the bottle out and he will splutter on the milk. If I don't hear that coming then he chokes. A couple of times now he has struggled to get over it himself and I have had to flip him over, tap his back and, thankfully, the milk foams out of his mouth. Very scarey. He is about to start with a childminder, only 4 hours a day, and I'm trying to work out a way where she doesn't have to feed him a bottle as I'm terrified of what may happen as she won't know how to read him yet.

Btw I do sit him as upright as possible when feeding and have tried pulling out the bottle at times to try and slow down the flow. The teat is still the 0-6 month teat so isn't fast flow by any means. Any time I tried the next teat up he really choked on the fluids. I feel like we should be moving forwards towards using sippy cups but can't even contemplate that with this problem at hand.

Also, occasionally, he seems to choke on his saliva when he is just lying down on his back. However, this isnt a brand new problem as he has done this a few times before the recent spate of events.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experiences as to what may be causing this sudden and scarey change in his feeding?

Sorry no experience but this should bump for you.

My ds is 6 months and has always struggled with this. What you are saying all sounds familiar and it is very scarey! Unfortunately I don't have any answers for you. We are starting weaning and it concerns me. Does he choke easily on food too or just liquids?

Cats, if you are worried about weaning see if your local children's centre run a paed first aid course.

We have done a first aid course so theoretically know how to deal with it...in practice it's more panic though!

I'd def speak to your HV. She might want to refer him paed or speech therapist trained in eating and drinking difficulties. I think a professional needs to see it happen in order to give advice. You could maybe start filming on your phone so you have a couple clips.

Without seeing him a few thoughts:- Is he teething? Maybe struggling with excess saliva? Or blocked nose/cold making it harder to co-ordinate swallowing and breathing.
Maybe try letting him have a few sucks then removing bottle for breathing break yourself.

DS managed 3 days a week without a breastfeed during my working day from 9-10 months. He ate well though and I made sure he had porridge, cheese and yoghurt.

Thanks for your thoughts so far.

He is fine with his solids although I haven't given him finger foods yet, just purées. He has never choked on these just his liquids.

He has had the appearance of his first two teeth recently which I wondered may have something to do with it. However, the problem is not excess saliva. He is hardly dribbling at all since the the teeth actually cut through a week ago.

Catsrule, does your baby ever just choke on their saliva/phlegm? Mine does this at times. Usually when lying on his back.

He doesn't choke as such on just saliva but during the night he often wakes up swallowing excessively...he is teething though but has always done that so I'm not convinced teething is totally to blame although it probably doesn't help.

He doesn't choke as such on just saliva but during the night he often wakes up swallowing excessively...he is teething though but has always done that so I'm not convinced teething is totally to blame although it probably doesn't help.