BLW and choking

[Belle1409]

My DS is just over 6 months old and I started weaning him at 5.5 months with purees. He will take a couple of mouthfuls off a spoon (the majority comes back out his mouth) and then won't open his mouth again.

I would like to try baby led weaning however I am worried about choking. I know what to do if this happens and have seen my DS gag a few times already so I know he can do this if something is too big a mouthful.

Does anyone have any tips of how to reduce my fear of him choking and any tips on BLW - size of foods, best foods to try first etc. Thank you :)

This is just how DD2 was. Blw worked for us. I think I had les of the fear because she wasn't my first. I had been through the fear with DD1 and seen that they do have a very good gag reflex. My only advice is to give soft food to start with, avocado, banana and sweet potatoes are good. DD2 would take Greek yogurt with a spoon....the only food she would, so maybe worth a shot.

Children's centres and Nct groups sometimes run paediatric courses, that might reassure you.

*paediatric first aid courses

With DS2 we started BLW and gagged a lot to start with, but that's good. His face went red and it was just the food coming more forward in his mouth.

DS is 6.5 months and I'm feeding him mashed (not pureed) food so he is getting used to handling lumps that way and giving him finger foods alongside. At the moment he's managing well with banana, sweet potato wedges, strips of toast, strips of chicken, brocolli, cauliflower, sliced babybel. The gagging can be a bit heartstopping at times but I just make sure I keep smiling as they do look to you for reassurance - he's struggled with some.stuff like hard sticks of cheese, some harder cooked veg like carrots and raw pepper where he's really coughed, gagged and been sick so I'm just taking it very slowly.

I don't see how gagging is good? It sounds fucking terrifying. It happened to DS once when I gave him a banana and now he's going to be on purees and ready brek til he's 18

It's because it's protective, it shows that they're not choking. The gag reflex in babies is much more sensitive than in an adult and much further forwards. It means they're pushing the food forward and then can manipulate it again or spit it out if they don't want to eat it. It doesn't hurt or harm them at all. They quickly stop gagging as they get better at using their tongue to manipulate food. DS2 is 10 months and now rarely gags.

I see your point AssassinatedBeauty, but is the gagging really inevitable? I gave DS some banana without mashing it once and it was horrid. I've decided to give BLW a miss partly for that reason. Will he gag as much if we progress from purees, to mashed food, to soft finger food? He just didn't seem ready for it, even though he was 6.5 mo, can sit up etc. He wants to eat it, not just chew on it.

When we started weaning dd at 6 months I wanted to try BLW but whatever we gave her she would shove it straight to the back of her throat and I was too worried about part of the food breaking off and not being able to get it out so we stuck with purées at first. She loves her food and will eat the entirety of anything I give her if it is puréed or mashed. I got a weird mesh lollipop device from Nuby (I think they are called nibblers) that you can put chunks of solid in and it is easy for them to hold and chew to get the flavour but no risk of choking, using this has made her better with her hand eye coordination and she no longer just shoves food straight in so we have started with some BLW again, things like green beans (with peas popped out already) carrot sticks, cucumber sticks (good for sore gums) and this weekend she demolished 3 strawberries. I still use the mesh lollipops when we go out in the pram tied to the handle with ribbon so she can't drop the food while we are out. I know people will sneer at using them but it gave me peace of mind until dd was ready to do BLW properly.

I do a mix of purées and BLW now by the way, I think the BLW thing becomes a bit like the bf/ff issue with BLW seen as the best thing to do and purée painted as if it came from the devil himself. Don't worry and do what is right for your dc

I hope that doesn't turn out to be the case silk!

They're two different ways so by feeding purée, you're teaching baby to swallow and chewing comes later and by BLW, you're teaching them to chew and swallow what they've chewed. So to BLW-ers, the gag reflex is a great thing doing its job to teach them to move food around they're mouth and to protect them from choking. To TW-ers, it's more scary because baby will be trying to swallow because that's what they know.

So BLW - big chunks/slices/fingers that can't be swallowed without chewing first and traditional weaning - purée/mash/small chunks to move from swallowing to chewing and swallowing.