Choking on lumpy food!!

[luvlymum]

My dd is 7 months old now and I started weaning her about 5 weeks ago, she is eating really well and seems to like the taste of just about everything she's tried but she has a big problem with any lumps in her food, whereby she either spits the lumps out or chokes, I've tried her with finger foods but if a piece breaks off in her mouth she chokes again, how can I get her to take more lumpy food? I'm finding it really stressful and don't want her to be on slop forever!!

No advice LM, just wanted to say i'm having similar problems with my DS. Everytime I feed him food with lumps, even tiny ones he chokes or is sick! He also has 4 teeth through now and is nearly 8 months, any advice please???!

Leave her on the slops for a bit longer and don't get stressed. She is letting you know she isn't ready.
My two both hated lumpy mush ... went from pureed food to finger food.
She is only 7 months old ... she will get used to it.

You could try making the purees stodgier rather than a smooth puree with lumps in. This gets them used to dealing with something they can't just suck down, without the unexpectedness of a lump in a puree, IYSWIM.

Also is she actually choking? Ds gags on lumps, but I think thats because the lump accidentally got to the back of his throat before he was ready to swallow it - so he gags and splutters and gets it back in the middle of his mouth to chew.

But the advice for this is prob the same as the advice for anything - wait, they'll learn. If they still aren't taking lumpy food by a year, feed them chocolate chip cookies - bet they manage those .

Definitely agree with ghosty in saying that there is no need to give her lumpy food just yet, and also agree with fruitful that you should avoid runny food with small lumps in like you get in shop bought jars of food. Something a but stodgier, but without lumps specifically, eg mashed potato, is a good consistency to offer.

She's still only ever so little, and has only had a few weeks to start getting used to solid food at all - there's no real rush to get her eating lumps, give her another couple of weeks on purees before you try increasing the lumpiness again. The fact that she's still on slop after 5 weeks doesn't mean she's going to be on it forever - it just means she's not ready for anything else yet, and when you think about it, five weeks isn't all that long to have been on purees for. It's not worth stressing yourself over - it's not a race, you don't have to fit her into a timetable, just go with what your baby wants.

One of my children was still eating meals pureed well past a year old. It doesn't matter as long as they eventually learn to eat finger foods which your baby will in time. Even if it had been important, I reasoned that I would rather my babies ate a large amount of puree than they ate hardly any lumpy food, or, worse, ate the lumpy food and then choked on it and threw it back up!

I remember my HV telling me at 8 months that we were going to 'miss the boat' if we didn't get DS onto lumpy food.
What 'boat' was that exactly?
Who ever met a normal, healthy older child still on puree?
DS is now nearly six and I assure you does not eat pureed food!

Mental HV alert