Choking hazards

[MuddlePuddle86]

Hi ladies,
My son is 7 months and was weaned at 16 weeks as he was so hungry, he's in his 70% centile thing, so he's a roly poly baby! He has porridge for breakfast, cheese & broccoli/baby pasta and sauce/blended potatoes and veg with chicken gravy etc and for supper he has one of the variations above with cous cous with yoghurt and fruit...

His eating is fine, the problem I have is my HV is mythering me to start him on finger food, so she suggested butter drenched toast, first time I tried it he choked, quite badly. On her advice I have tried milk bisuits (like rusks but a bit harder) and little baby rice crackers (the size of snack a jacks) and he choked on both of these...is this normal? do I keep trying if there's such a hard risk or should I hang fire for a few more weeks, he has 2 teeth on the bottom, one half way through and one just breaking through...his choking is putting me off wanting to keep giving him food...is there anything that literally melts in the mouth? He's fine with bananas...

soft fruits and well cooked veg will be softer and melt in the mouth better. You could also try cooked pasta in sizes he can pick up himself

OK I'll try the large pasta shapes, how long average will it be until he gets past this stage do you know?

Did he choke or did he gag?

If he was coughing a bit, eyes watering and then regurgitating the food, it was gagging - which is totally natural and the baby's way of dealing with large lumps of food until they get the hang of chewing them small enough to swallow more easily. It's scary the first few times they do it, but don't worry - it's part of their learning process. Babies have a more sensitive gag reflex than adults to protect them from choking. It also doesn't tend to bother them too much, even though it looks a bit dramatic.

If the baby was silent and struggling to breathe, then it was choking and that is worth worrying about.

The general advice is to avoid small hard things like nuts etc but don't worry about leaving the peel on fruit and suchlike. My own DD has become expert at stripping the flesh off peel and spitting it out after a few gagging incidents. I've noticed that in only a couple of weeks, she's already gagging far less as she gets the idea of mastication.

She's just coming up to 8mo, is small for her age and has cut her first tooth within the last couple of days.

Her fave pasta shape is rigatoni - I cook it soft and coat it in unsalted butter - she loves it! Also roast veg - things like courgette, red pepper, sweet potato and butternut squash have gone down well.

Yes, toast fingers smothered in butter are another winner.

He wasn't gagging, he couldn't breathe, he just goes read and starts to go grey around the beard area, I never leave him unattended whilst eating, my dh smacked him solidly between his shoulder blades just a few hours ago because of rice cracker. He does gag on some things which a smack sorts out, but if he gags, is it upto me to dislodge the item or will it naturally dislodge itself?
The toast didn't slide down, it formed a large ball which block his throat :(

Oo and thanks for the ideas of veggies, I'll give them a whirl tomorrow !

Sounds scary

Soft fruit like peach, plum, nectarine, ripe pear etc are good first finger foods.

I think the advice on gagging is NOT to slap them on the back, to just keep calm, make exaggerated chewing actions and wait for the baby to spit it out for themselves. However it does sound like your ds is doing something different.

Could you feed him something next time the HV is around so she can see his reaction? That way she can judge if it's normal or not...

I started off soaking rice cakes in milk so they were super soft and putting them on the high chair tray for DD to pick up, then when she got used to that I soaked them for less and less time, now I just give them straight out of the packet.

Also I have found roast veg, avacado lightly mashed with a fork directly onto the tray, and soft fruit have worked well - have you tried raspberries?

Look out for pears though, they can be harder than they look. But you can always steam them for a few minutes to soften them up.

What else? - sticks of cheese, bits of fish (but check carefully for bones), or if you're really worried about choking then just put some of whatever he would normally have (I'm guessing it has lumps in it by this stage) on the tray and let him have a play. It will probably be a while before he gets much in but it will get him used to the idea of putting food in his mouth himself.

And get ready for a mess!

Good luck

I had a real job with my DS getting him to eat normal foods, he had reflux and an extreme gag reflex and oral aversions. It was over 13 months till he ate lumpy! But we got there and by 16 months most normal foods. What helped us was..skips (quartered at first) and organix 7mth carrot sticks chopped up on the tray alongside his baby mush. Started small and then got bigger and also introduced bread pieces, grated cheese, chopped peaches, banana etc. Then the lumpy/mashed stuff and finally full foods.

I found DS choked on rice cakes. Start by melt in the mouth baby crisps (7 mth ones) and work from there!

Thanks everyone! I grated cheese today and put it on his high chair table he seemed impressed...I just don't want to stump his appetite when he's keen to try new things, at the same time I don't want to kill him! I like to idea of flakey steamed fish as I normally just mash it with a fork, but it might be an idea to let him do the mashing with his fingers! Thanks for all your advice!

I totally understand. It is normal for abit of gagging at first but not choking. Not worth it IMO. Some babies take alot longer to be able to do it. i would wait till later for toast etc and do the melt in the mouth stuff first.Start chopping the bits small and eventually give full pieces while giving him what he will eat as the main even if that is still mush.