Terrified baby will choke again

[cac]

My baby is 8 months old and I feel he should be eating much more finger food than he is currently doing (especially after reading what your babies are all eating!!) He choked the other day on some rice (!) and it scared me to death. What is he going to be like with finger food?! I don't think I could cope with the stress! Please help/advise!

think you need to make sure the food is well cooked/steamed so that it isn't a chunk, but would tear apart easily in their hands
i worry about the choking thing too and still cut grapes up for my 2 year old

did he choke or just gag? gagging is to stop choking, it's a good thing.

seriously now, did he choke or did he cough and gag? did he turn blue? can you describe the incident?

and last but not least, what do you know about infant resuscitation? i think every parent should do one.

do a course in IR, that is.

hi diz

mmm ... I think maybe he coughed and gagged (he certainly didn't turn blue) - terrifying all the same. I have done a course on IR though. Perhaps I'll pluck up the courage and give finger food another go - I'm sure he'd enjoy it! Thank you for replying so quickly! (This is my 1st time on mumsnet chat - it's great, isn't it!)

I think babies often gag when first having food. If they gag and get rid ofthe food, then that shows they're working IYSWIM. Both mine used to gag fairly regularly , mostly on potato. DS less than dd, but think that's because he was 6 months as opposed to 4 months, and also was given chunky finger food from the get go.

Choking is really different and more worrying.

right this is going to sound harsh but isn't meant to be .. but

You desperately need to get a grip on your fear .. because if you over-react to the very very normal gagging, coughing reflex you risk setting up some very strange food issues with your child

gagging is simply when the food goes a little too far back in his mouth

when he coughs he moves it forward again

choking is an inability to breathe because the food is blocking the windpipe

it is rare that babies actually choke .. if he ever cannot breathe you hold him along your arm and give him a hard pat on the back .. make sure head pointing down

you need to stop your fear .. it is pointless

he will not choke

stop throwing yourself into a panic

hi aitch

I remember the first time my dd choked on some food - luckily i had an experienced friend with me who sorted it out (i.e. held her upside down and smacked her on the back!) and i didn't stop shaking for hours. Since this incident she has choked many times and i can just deal with it - so it will get less frightening!!

I also found that she would gag if i hadn't blended her food up enough for her - i reckon its quite normal for lumps to make them gag even before they try to swallow it. i reckon once they're ready for lumps this reflex just disappears.

if it was just gagging then really turning him upside down and smacking him on the back is a bit over the top. if you just do chewing faces and loudly go ...nyang nyang nyang.. that gets them back on track.

It was definately choking!! but she's survived 2 years since!

Cac - I do sympathise, I had exactly this worry with my ds (see my thread here )

Ds still gags once in a while but I am coping much better with it after my talking-to by MNers, and I now manage not to panic at even his most eye-watering red-faced cough-spew moments {proud emoticon}.

in my opinion, rice is quite a tricky thing to eat by the way. funnily enough i think i've actually coughed on rice myself.
it does depend on your approach, of course, but afte a month or so of BLW finger food i found my dd preferred bigger, softer things to eat. stuff like well cooked broccoli, roast sweet potato chips, halved new potatoes, rather than small things.
it was almost as if she could take the right size of nibble out of a big piece, whereas a smaller thing was harder to grip adn more likely to go in her mouth in a oner.
twig's right, by the way. she's really not very likely to choke. and you've done the course, you know what to do. dizzy's nyum nyum faces and exxaggerated chewing is a good tip, too. welcome to mumsnet.

DS is 9mo and I am finding stress-free finger food to be really soft food like pieces of avocado, banana, cooked sweet potato etc. DS can pick it up (albeit a bit messy!) and has to chew it but it is soft and turns to mush really quickly so not much of a choking hazard.
I have started introducing harder food like tinned pear/peach which requires more chewing and I suppose over time I will give him harder food like apple etc.
My feeling is that going slowly like this is getting him used to chewing before he eats anything which is too much of a hazard. (I am pretty nervous of him choking hence probably being over cautious.)

You have to believe that babies are really much more resilient than we give them credit for sometimes.

Actual choking is something very unusual. Gagging is, I think, a fairly normal response to learning to take solids.

Both of mine used to gag more with gloopy food like mashed potato and baby rice than with more substantial lumps.

Right, tomorrow, finger food it is!

i went to a soft play centre today with a friend and her ds. dd was chomping happily on a banana and had a biscuit too. she gagged on the biscuit a bit..red face, open mouth, gipping...i looked at her and just smiled. my friend said 'OHHHHHHH MYYYYYYY GOOOOOOOOOOD SHE'S CHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKING' i said 'no she isn't' and promptly went into 'nyang nyang nyang,' offered her a drink, and went back into our conversation. my friend looked at me like i'd flipped.

...your poor neglected daughter, dizzy...
good luck tomorrow. take it easy, no pressure. remember milk is their main source of nutrition for the first year.

Good luck cac (and welcome! )

I'd second what the first lady of BLW said - a course on resuscitation is excellent. I did one, and I'm hoping I'll never have to use it, but it definitely provides reassurance.