Anxious Mum

[Janmad]

My DD is 11 months and loves her food but I find she crams everything into her mouth, the other morning she was eating toast and I took my eyes off her for a moment to watch Noddy and she started to choke! I was petrified both myself and DH were struggling to get her out of the high chair. She sicked it all up but I was shaking. I now feel like I am standing over her watching every bite she eats. I have started to give her things cut up into bite size pieces so I can monitor what she is eating and I have stopped giving her finger food! Can anyone give me any advice on how to encourage her to eat with her hands but safely???

Don't stop giving her finger food, you just have to watch them whilst they eat it (and any other food actually) I'm afraid.

my dd does this too, takes huge bits of toast and the coughs and sometimes is sick and I know how scary it is, tbh I just keep an extra eye out as I didn't really want to restrict her finger foods, as ddp says don't stop finger foods

It is scary, but its better to keep on giving her finger food and let her learn how to eat it properly. They have a natural gag reflex at this age and what can sometimes look like choking is in fact just gagging because a solid lump is on the back of the tongue and they cant quite move it backwards or forwards.

I would also say that you take care not to frown or look stressed/upset whilst she is eating in future because they pick up on it.

Lastly, to put your mind at rest, if you havent already done so - sign up for baby first aid. It focuses on choking in babies and rescuscitation - its a different procedure for babies (than adults) and well worth doing.

How scary for you. This organisation run courses called \link{http://www.rlss.org.uk/courses/lifesupport_awards.htm"Save a Baby's Life"}. There's a link at the bottom of the page.

Dole it out in small portions and keep adding to it when she wants more.

Read up on first aid too!

I had to turn my daughter upside down and shake her when she was about 4 because she put a marble in her mouth and accidentally swallowed it.

Just checking - are you sure she was choking, and not just gagging? Gagging looks scary, but is just about something triggering a gagging reflex. Babies are still breathing when they're gagging, while choking means they're not breathing.

Either way, yeah, you need to keep an eye on her, though. No telly at meal times is a good habit to get into, in my opinion.

I will look into the baby first aid thing I think it would help a lot if I knew what to do if she did choke, rather than run around in a blind panic!! When she is eating I smile and tell her she is clever etc etc I try not to look anxious...I think. Thinking back I'm sure she was choking and not gagging, gagging we have both seen often but this was much more violent.
This morning she had her toast and like always pushes the whole thing in her mouth sucks it until it is very soggy then rips off a massive lump, which I then take out of her mouth and we start again, if I give her bite size portion she just chews it and swallows it. she also helps herself from the plate. So with fingers of toast she eats very little of it, but with bite size pieces she may eat 1/4 to 1/2 a slice, Whats the best thing to do? She does this with everything from toast to peaches!!

I would cut things up into bite-sized bits most of the time, I think, just to make things easy for you. If she's eating bite-sized bits at 11 months, rather than mush (or lumpy mush), she's doing fine!