10 month old cannot eat lumps or finger foods without vomiting

[MummyGina]

Heya, wondering if anyone has had a similar experience at all!

My ten month old is currently on three meals a day, but he will only eat smooth or slightly textured food - he cannot eat anything too lumpy, too thick or finger foods. If I offer them, he will try and eat them but then promptly gag and vomit...

This has been going on for a long time now and I have been trying to add a bit more texture or small lumps and really easy finger foods every few days but it always seems have the same result and I dont want him ending up with a complex!

I’ve also been trying to introduce some snacks as he can be a bit fussy and I want to increase his options (weirdly he loves porridge and savoury purees but only likes a limited range of fruits and sweeter things!) he hadn’t had apple for a while, so this afternoon I offered him some apple and pear purée - he had one mouthful, pulled a face, gagged once and then threw up everywhere... that’s stumped me even more as there are definitely no lumps in that!

Any ideas?! Please 😂

Thanks!

Anyone? 😔

I would go to your health visitor and discuss this and maybe ask for a referral to speech and language therapy (sounds odd but they also deal with feeding)

My first thought is does he have a tongue tie? My tied baby would gag a lot and sometimes bring up food, because they can't move the tongue fully to position the food.

Hi OP, my little one was similar, would have gagged and vomited a lot up until they were around 1, I found it very worrying and contacted the HV.
She referred me to the dietician who just gave me phone advice, she said some babies just don't like lumps and will grow out of it. But I would phone them if you're worried

I'm a SALT and I work with paediatric swallowing difficulties. What you describe is very common. I'm guessing there is no health or developmental back story that might explain a difficulty swallowing? Reflux? If not, highly likely that you dc will grow out of it as they get a bit older. Keep offering increased texture regularly but don't make a fuss if they don't eat it or vomit it up - it will create a problem then. Don't just stick with purée even if it looks safe as that can be worse in the long run.

My 9mo is similar, but can handle jars/pouches.. anything that's "real" food and not from the baby aisle gets gagging and vomiting

Saying that, they manage the puffs well because they melt.

Also you could give your ds a spoon to hold and play with, just to get the gist.

You're not alone

Thank you so much for your responses

I think I can safely say that he doesn’t have a tongue tie... the boy is obsessed with sticking his tongue out and playing with it!

As for background, nothing really to speak of in relation to food. He did have a bit of reflux as a newborn but that seems to be long gone now.

And in regard to the types of foods, he will have homemade savoury purées and savoury pouches, but will not accept a jar (can’t blame him on that one! Haha) and is picky with fruits and won’t touch yoghurts! Strange boy! But I was especially surprised after he was sick after the fruit yesterday 🤔

I’m really hoping this will be something he will grow out of, because it’s been going on so long now and it’s really limiting what I can give him!

My DC3 had issues with lumps, especially when mixed in with smooth textures.
We were under the SALT team and a dietician who recommended to make bite sized pieces of 'solid' food and serve separately to the soft/smooth foods.

So for things like beef stew I would cut all of the pieces into about the size of my finger nail and not drain a bit of the gravy off and mix that with some mashed potatoes and serve that to he side of the tray or after they've eaten a food amount of protein and veg.
I loaded the fork and had two so when one was in the mouth the next was free to load etc.
The key is to really keep on giving different textures, even if they take a long time to get used to it, unless Baby is struggling to maintain weight then gagging and a few vomits here and there shouldn't be causing a huge issue, but if it continues up to a year I would mention it to the HV or GP to see if they can look into it.

We had this w DS1. Gagged and vomired on all lumpy food until 18 mo. Then could still intermittently do this. He basically had a soft diet until he was 2 avoiding all chunky/lumpy food. We didn't push lumpy food as I was concerned about choking. Quiche was a good option because it is proper food but soft (with a soft/ light crust).We felt a bit strange not to be feeding our child finger food/'adult' food but just accepted he had a sensitive gag reflex. He is now a strapping 6footer who eats anything.

Hi @MummyGina

I appreciate this is a very very old post, but on the off chance you may see this, did you see any improvements at all?

My baby is 10 months today and vomits what seems like his entire stomach contents on finger food, or textured food such as ground mince, hummus, avocado etc.

He did have quite bad reflux until 4 months due to an undiagnosed tongue tie that was snipped at 12 weeks (wasn’t ever picked up as he gained weight so well). He eats weetabix for breakfast (made very thick), is fine on the Piccolo star pasta and is fine on very soft boiled carrots/ broccoli etc. Otherwise I am lightly mashing his food (potato, banana etc) to stop him from vomiting it all. Will be speaking to the HV but also appreciate any advice! Thank you in advance

Amazingly I just so happened to get the email notification pretty much straight away so… hey! My little man is now 6 and he did get there eventually but it was a very slow process. He remained on very soft food for quite some time (probably until about 2ish) and at times it was so difficult I swore by the little food tray things you can get as they were a good consistency for him and fruit/veg pouches. I felt bad not being able to do much in the way of home made food but in the end it’s what he could eat and hold down.
He now has a good varied diet but still has a sensitive gag reflex (if he sees something he finds gross he has been known to vomit 😬) and he still doesn’t like certain foods/textures but there is variety enough that he’s healthy and that it’s not too restrictive.
I think looking back it could in part be due to sensory issues, we are currently going down the autism diagnosis pathway… not to say at all that you will have the same ahead but rather that if you do find something little one will eat, stick to that and slowly introduce other foods and if it doesn’t work don’t worry too much. I did find it stressful and sometimes like I was being judged if I gave him a meal pouch instead of solid finger foods but he simply couldn’t handle the finger foods so I was doing what I needed to for my son and I shouldn’t have let it stress me so much 😊

@MummyGina ah I’m in luck!

thank you so much for taking the time to reply and update me. I’m really glad your son made progress in the end, even if it was slow.

I get that feeling bad guilt here too, I was so happy to have made him some pastry pinwheels (I know that sounds so silly) but he just chewed it, and then vomited it up, along with the full contents of his stomach. We tried him again on Piccolo star pasta yesterday which he has had before, and for some reason that came back up too. Today he’s not been overly interested in solids (only bloody Ella’s kitchen melty sticks, he would eat a whole packet of those given the chance, which is why I’m at least comfortable he’s not in any pain). Just very worried about giving him a complex related to food if he starts to realise he will just be sick.

I really appreciate your advice on finding something he will eat and sticking to it! I found myself crying in secret about it today so I think I need to follow your advice too ok not getting too stressed. His inefficient breastfeeding from the late snip tongue tie has given him a high palette too which I’m sure doesn’t help. I just look at all his friends at groups on 3 adventurous meals a day, and I honestly think he’d be happy just on milk, it makes you feel a bit rubbish doesn’t it.

I’ve booked an appointment with the gp incase there’s any support they can give, but otherwise will just go very slowly and hope he gets there eventually, like your little one did.

Thank you so much again and hope you are getting all the support you need with the autism diagnosis 😊

@MummyGina
@Cdoc

Hi - I just wanted to thank you both for this thread. It’s given me some hope. My 10 month old baby vomits on any bigger lumps and finger foods - even pasta stars, couscous, scrambled egg, soft weaning muffins etc. She just gags and vomits up everything she’s eaten (plus more sometimes) and it is so stressful. She does it at every meal where we give her something lumpier or a finger food, so for the moment I’ve gone back to just giving stage 2 pouches and sometimes mixing in some mashed sweet potato or similar to boost the nutrition a bit. I can’t see when we’re ever going to reach the stage where she can tolerate pancakes, toast, rice, pasta etc.

@Cdoc Have you seen any improvements since January?

Hi @Everleigh13

Sorry to hear you’re dealing with this too, it is so so stressful and you just feel like giving up sometimes.

We have seen some improvement, he still struggles with certain textures but if we cut up into small bite size pieces he is much better. Strangely he doesn’t struggle at nursery at all, he eats very well there and much better than he does at home.

I did go to the gp and also had a speech and language referral. The Gp referred us to the hospital to conduct other tests, including an ultrasound on his tummy to rule out pyloric stenosis (he didn’t really meet the criteria for this but ruled it out anyway).

We haven’t fully got to the bottom of the speech and language referral yet as I need to send them videos of him eating, but they believe it may be sensory related or persistent reflux, in particular as he suffered from bad reflux as a younger baby. The other factor in play with us is that he has enlarged tonsils (and suffers from recurrent tonsillitis) which may also be a factor in his struggle to swallow lumpier foods.

Please don’t give up! You can self refer to speech and language and they will do an assessment as to whether your little one is properly chewing, to rule that out as an issue. Whilst my son does definitely still have issues with certain foods (pasta without a sauce is an absolute no, and he doesn’t cope well with rice either), it definitely isn’t nearly as bad as it was then. Best of luck

@Everleigh13 just to add, he gags and vomits on pasta at home, but will devour a pasta bake at nursery… similar story with bread, he tends to vomit or gag on toast at home, but will happily eat soup and bread at nursery. It’s very strange and that part we’ve yet to work out

@Cdoc Thank you for replying, that’s very interesting. Lots to think about. I hope your son continues to make good progress. My daughter is starting at nursery in a few months and it will be interesting to see if she gets on better there. I have got a referral to speech and language so will see how that goes. I am hopeful she will grow out of it but it is a worry. Thanks again!