Just started weaning is it normal for LO to have wind and to gag?

[sharond101]

DS is 25weeks old. He has always been a windy baby and had colic and takes gaviscon for silent reflux. Since starting weaning a week or so ago he has had a few days where he has been pretty windy and I wonder if it's his body getting used to the solid food and if it will just go away in time as it adapts to digesting more than just milk? He refuses baby rice so he has been getting some ready brek in the morning and a little pureed veg at lunch and dinner (carrots, potato or brocolli.)

Yesterday I cut a finger slice of a piece of toast for him. He sat sucking it for a while and then started to splutter and cough. Is this what is refered to as gagging and is this improved by practice or is he just not ready for this yet?

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

Anyway what I'm saying is we are still surviving as a species despite blenders being a recent invention. And many other cultures even in very recent history have no fed purees because they have no blenders.

And my family aren't from an impoverished Chinese village, amazing. Just in case you are imaging us huddled over a clay pot over a fire, not being able to afford a blender. Me and my cousins are from 70s and 80s in HK. And we have modern gadgets like microwaves, rice cookers and those instant one-press hot water quick cup machines.

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

elphaba that's why my mum and her sisters/cousins didn't feed us purees. Chinese kitchens do not have blenders. They aren't lazy and would cut the food up very finely with their cleavers. They best description would be sizes you find in egg fried rice. Nowadays new mums would buy a rip off gadget like this
m.johnlewis.com/mt/www.johnlewis.com/Shopping/Product.aspx?Type=SKU&Id=231051167&s%25pccid=pc%25gs%25%25&

Because still Chinese cooking doesn't need a blender. Ofc the lazy mums would open a jar or a pouch.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

Or even forks, come to think of it.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

After all, the human race has managed to survive this long, and for most of that time they didn't have blenders.

[WhispersOfWickedness]

Yup, I'm lazy Seriously, why would I spend hours steaming, boiling, pureeing, mashing, freezing, reheating, etc etc, if I didn't have to? Most babies I know are/have been weaned on solely finger foods and have got on very well, so it clearly does work. There are also a small minority who have been weaned on purees and are also fine, so I'm not about to say that their parents were wrong to feed them that way either. BLW was just the preferred method for us, i really wouldn't have done it any other way

[TittyBojangles]

Amazingmum
BLW is crazy and dangerous

Feel free to offer advice from your own experiences, but don't state something is dangerous, isn't recommended by hv (it is), and just an excuse for lazy parenting. How absolutely judgemental of you.

Op, for what its worth I did blw, had actually quite liked the idea of cooking/pureeing (see, not lazy), but having read the research (again not lazy) I decided the blw approach was for us. It isn't for everyone and I know a few ppl who tried it and then switched to purees. You have to find what works for you and your dc. It worked well for us, no choking issues, rarely gagged and has always eaten a good range of food. So from my experience I would recommend it. But would I suggest if you chose to wean with purees etc you are wrong? No, because I am not that rude!

[OneLittleToddlingTerror]

FWIW, amazing, my mum didn't feed me purees. Nor my many aunts from what I gather when I visited them in Hong Kong earlier this year. They went from rice porridge to very chopped up food. (Spoon fed, not finger food). So it's hardly universal that all babies traditionaly went from liquid to mushy purees to lumpy purees. I have more than 6 maternal cousins, so there are you go, more anecdotes than you being a mum of 6.

By the way, they commented on how I shouldn't be giving DD, who was 18mo at the time, big lumps of food. And instead I should be cutting them up finely with a pair of scissors. (I noticed lots of parents in restaurants cutting food furiously with scissors). It seems giving unwanted advise is definitely universal!

[aimingtobeaperfectionist]

Wow.
I didn't realise that home cooking from scratch then spending a good hour or so sitting at the table as a family talking about what we're eating, enjoying food texture taste and smell was lazy. Never mind clearing up after.
Yes, I can see how mushing up some food or opening a jar and spoon feeding is so much more time consuming.
How rude to say what I choose to do with my baby is wrong.
The decision of how to feed my child was not just a spur of the moment thing. I actually read up on both blw and purée foods (there I go again being lazy- sitting down to read) and decided on what I think is best for my child. If someone else decides to do differently, fine. I would never be so rude and obnoxious as to tell them they're wrong and endangering their baby.
You do realise babies choke more on purée foods than properly prepared solids?
That's actually been proven. Scientifically. Not just by what 'someone thinks'.
Yes, 'BLW' as a term has become fashionable. The actual practice of feeding baby what the family eats and letting them feed themselves has been going on for centuries.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

[MarkStretch]

Comparing BLW to murder, brilliant.

And if you think anyone who does blw is lazy, you've obviously never had to clean up after a blw'd baby has enjoyed the tates, textures, smells etc off their lovingly homecooked meal. It takes forever, but it's worth it.

[Hyperballad]

Amazing, your laziness point has just annoyed me somewhat! My baby is 4 months old and I haven't decided which route I'm taking with weaning yet. But neither route is more lazy than the other for me, both will be cooked from scratch as are all my meals now.

I hate to see babies spoon fed out of jars, that's lazy, but many people feed their babies just on jars when weaning and yet they could be deemed to be doing it 'your' way.

Your either lazy or not lazy, and whether you purée or blw is not a measure of this.

Grrrrrrr!!

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

guilty as charged.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

Do you want to read what I actually wrote, amazing? I did not say that swallowing a liquid requires a great deal of coordination 'in babies'. It requires a great deal of coordination in anyone. And if it sounds scientific, it's because I'm a specialist therapist who works with a population with a high rate of swallowing problems (neurologically impaired patients) who need things like fast-flowing liquids thickened in order to manage them. Yes, breast milk is a liquid, and my point is that if a baby can cope with swallowing that, their swallowing mechanisms are very well developed - certainly developed enough to cope with soft-cooked (not necessarily puréed) foods from 6 months.

BTW, giving babies pap, rusks in milk and weaning at 12 weeks also used to be considered 'common sense' until RESEARCH proved otherwise.

Thanks for that article Aitch - great read and reassuring. (Are you the BLW website Aitch?)

[amazingmumof6]

pickled you don't know what I'm talking about, that's clear, which doesn't bother me as I don't care what you think

as before, you don't need research when common sense and logic is enough.

but I'm bored with this topic, let's just agree to disagree

enjoy motherhood and be safe

[pickledparsnip]

Haha amazingmumof6 you are bonkers! What utter horse shite. You obviously have no idea what you are talking about.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

no, what would be great would be if you could back anything of what you say with relevant literature. you're an educated woman, you said that yourself, you know that squacking on about how something is 'crazy' is no way to conduct an argument.

[amazingmumof6]

but it would be great if I could spell words correctly!

[amazingmumof6]

you don't research for common sens and logic

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

oh, and re 'the transition from blah to blah should be gradual etc'... any actual research to back that up? other than your own children, because as you know the plural of anecdote is not data.

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

oh i see... so it's all second-hand gossip about a 'friend's niece'? is this really what you're basing such a rabidly 'anti' opinion? no-one's advocating raw apples or hard carrot, they're a choking hazard, whichever way you look at it.

did you consider reading the paper i mentioned? or are you sticking with the friend of a friend method of data collection?

[amazingmumof6]

not American, watch lots of CSI though!

again my biggest problem is that it seems that people use it for their own convenience (I called it lazy, call it what you will) rather than focusing on what benefits the child.

Elphaba you said it yourself you are not sure and it makes you nervous.

it makes me nervous just hearing about that my friends niece is given chunks of apple at 7 months! apples, carrots and some other "hard" foods are a choking hazard even for toddlers. it's a fact, not my opinion.

softer foods can be mashed and left lumpy and yes an 8-month old can chomp through a piece of cooked broccoli (my son did that) and your 10 month old might get hold of a burger and take the biggest bite and be fine (my other son did that) and that is good, normal and to be encouraged.

BUT the transition from liquid (breast milk or formula) to chunks should be gradual. what's the hurry to skip the in-between steps?


" a liquid takes a great deal of coordination for babies" utter nonsense, but you accept it because it sounds scientific enough

breast milk is a liquid, last time I checked..

[Wrigglebum]

And re the gagging- a few weeks in and DS2 rarely gags now. Ds1 was weaned the traditional way with purées and as soon as even the tiniest lump was introduced he was gagging for England for weeks and weeks. He refused all but completely smooth food and even now at 3 he is really fussy about texture (and still expects to be spoon fed but that's another story).

Are you American amazing? Your use of DUI seems to suggest it and I know Americans are a bit more conservative on weaning than Brits.

[Wrigglebum]

And why shouldn't a baby have curry amazing? My six month old has had homemade curried sweet potato cakes and homemade chicken curry (chewed on the chicken and ate the sauce and rice from a spoon). He couldn't get enough of either.

I cook all meals from scratch, but blw allows me to make one meal we can all eat. Does that make me more lazy than someone doing traditional weaning who relies on pre-made jars and pouches (not everyone who does traditional weaning prepares it all themselves you know)?

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

oh and i am DEFINITELY lazy. why make two meals when you can make one? start as you mean to go on, i say...

[AitchTwoOhOneTwo]

i've got a feeling your HV knows well enough just to reflect back whatever you've just said, amazing.

however, if you feel like having an HV who is up to date in her learning, suggest she googles the latest review of the considerable research into blw, a paper called 'how feasible is blw as an approach to infant feeding?' by the dept of human nutrition in otago uni, nz. it's great, and confirms most of what you just said is... well... nonsense, really.

but of course regarding the 'if it ain't broke' line, you'll be able to provide us with acres of research demonstrating that purees really are the best way to wean children.