Weaning help!!

[Nichola89]

My little one is 6 months old and despite every effort seems to gag/choke on almost every piece of finger food we give her! This then scares us and we revert to spoon feeding purees!! Any help or advice would be great!

Stick with the spoon feeding but have food available to nibble

seriously she’s so so young - just spoon feed

I spoon fed.

as I write this my early teen is making me dinner and…. He will eat with a knife and fork, all on his own!

Go to the solid starts website and use their search box for the choking vs. gagging article. Despite being unpleasant to watch, gagging is a perfectly normal (and lifesaving) response as the baby learns the boundaries of their mouth, and the sizes of food they can't swallow, and will soon improve if you stick with it.

Thank you SO much everyone - your advice to continue with spoon feeding is so so reassuring!!

I started off doing mixed weaning, but I was so on edge during every meal that I was too stressed to make it an enjoyable meal for DS. I therefore did purées only for a couple of weeks then started to slowly do mixed. He was very confident with finger foods from around 8-9 months old.

I did a first aid course before ds started solids and they showed us what to do when someone chokes, which was terrifying and reassuring both at the same time. Also, they taught us the difference between choking and gagging. So if your child is coughing, spluttering or generally making any noise whatsoever they are not choking. When they are choking no sound will be able to come out. So coughing, etc is perfectly normal and how they learn to eat.

I was still worried so initially gave Ds a lot of Fingerfood that is unlikely to make him choke, eg very soft vegetables (potatoes etc) or vegetables cut into extremely thin slices, baby snacks like puffs or wafers (just stay away from rice cakes).

If it stresses you out just stick with spoon feeding. Most kids of my generation were I think spoon fed and I don't think it makes a big difference to anything.

It is adorable though watching these little ones feed themselves especially when they are enjoying the food.

Do it at your own pace and be prepared that there will be weeks back and forth of them eating and not eating. It's a very long journey, be kind to yourself. We all eat in the end, no one guzzles formula at weddings from my observation and I'm sure all our mothers fretted about weaning 😉 mines 11 months and I can only now say he enjoys solids and developed a healthy appetite. It can be disheartening but the reward is quite something. Also pouches are not end of the world! There's nothing nasty in them and cooking every day is a lot....

I was so stressed with weaning dd1. I did finger food, I 'loaded up' spoons. I'd sot her down and offer bits of food. Looking back, she just wanted to eat.

With dd2, she sat at the table with us, I'd give her pieces of broccoli or toast and mash up something of what we were eating and fed her, and I alsostarted closer to 7 months as she just didn't seem intersted. She gagged so I just stuck with mashed stuff for longer and was a bit more selective with the finger foods. She's a great eater. It's so easy to make it a big deal but I think as long as you aren't pouring liquid from a spoon into their mouths when they are far too young, you're doing fine.