New to BLW & DS keeps choking

[lechatnoir]

I'm only a week into BLW but feeling ready to quit & go onto conventional purees as he seems to choke on everything! So fgar I've given him pieces of nectarine, melon, banana, cucumber, soft carrot & pear and without exception he'll ram it into his mouth, gum it for a while then break a large chunk off in his mouth & proceed to gag. I tried leaving him for a few seconds but he can't seem to dislodge it so I have to either fish it out or pat him on the back. Any I doing something wrong or is he just not ready yet? He really enjoys playing/tasting everything I give him so the gagging doesn't seem put him off, but it's making me nervous. Any advice would be great.

hi there,
i understand the note of panic, it's just horrible seeing them struggle.
one thing i did was a baby resus class at the local hospital, which made me a lot more confident about waiting a gagging session out before rushing to thump her on the back.
the other thing is that i would agree with psychobabble about the slipperiness of things. we started with peach quarters but i would hold onto them while the baby sat on my lap and grabbed my hand and put it in her mouth. that way i felt like i could be more aware of what was going in.
the next thing she ate was steamed carrot, which was quite mushy in her hand but even then she would take huge chunks of them and let them drop out of her mouth after a wee gag.
sorry i don't have time to think about an answer more, if you want you could have a look at my ridiculous brand new baby led weaning blog... i've only been keeping it for the last week or so...
anyway, i've kind of kept a diary of the things she's eaten, if you want to have a look at it you are most welcome... babyledweaning.blogware.com/blog
i don't know how to add things properly (my sister signed up for the blog for me, i'm more of a technophobe, really) so you could cut and paste it if you want.
good luck, and remember, if you don't think he's ready he might just be not ready. doesn't mean you should automatically leap towards pureeing things.
maybe leave it a week and try again?

Oh, my DS2 gagged a fair bit, but seemed to dislodge things.

Gagging is not the same thing as choking - I think the gag reflex needs to settle down a bit when they start solids.

What I did when DS2 gagged was to watch very closely (duh) and see if he was still breathing. He always was. So I let him gag, and let him work out what was going on.

Watermelon is good, too, as it's quite soft and mushy. Relatively dry porridge is a good (if messy and unconventional) finger food.

It took DS2 a little while to get the hang of food, but he only gagged a few times. Never choked.

Hm, that came across as quite abrupt and dismissive and rude. I am sweaty and hot. Please insert support and pleasantness as necessary ;-).

I understand you being worried, it was very hard for me to sit still and watch DS2 gag, I think I only managed it because he's a second child.

Wow thanks for al the replies & so quick too .
I wil certainly try the suggested foods & watch him to see whether it's gagging or choking (although I think I already know the answer) then try to leave him for a bit longer so he has a chance to dislodge the food himself. If that doesn't work I might just hold off on the weaning for another week or 2 as he's only 24 weeks so no big hurry.
Loving the Blog Aitch - really amusing, very helpful & you've got a gorgeous litle girl!
Thanks again
LCN

ta, i'm trying to update it every night but sometimes i don't have the strength. i had said to my sister that i was going to keep a diary and she just shook her head... apparently nobody writes stuff down in books any more. so she's sorted it out for me... i feel very modern!
by the way, i really cannot recommend the resuscitation class too highly, i just felt so much more capable after it and so did my husband. and the watermelon is an excellent idea, i'll publish my research into the galia melon shortly

Aitch71 - your blog is great, I've seen it on yahoo BLW site (I'm Rachey 19691)

really? how exciting, thanks for the compliment...
you wrote a lovely response on yahoo and i think i got mixed up and called you jen by mistake.

i've got some friends from my ante-natal class who will be starting BLW over the next couple of months so i wanted to give them an easy place to go (have endlessly instructed them to come here to mumsnet but they are peculiarly frightened of message board sites).

i would TOTALLY appreciate it if you could add comments or advice to anything i've written, they keep on asking me questions about BLW and i just don't know the answeres. Luckily i've picked up lots of great info from Mumsnet and the Yahoo group. there's an ivillage one as well, but i don't think it's as well populated.

anyway, if you could look in on us from time to time i'd be most grateful. Paola from yahoo let me put up her 'veteran' file, which is great for me as a newbie.
cheers again
h

how excellent! thanks!