oh, isn't that interesting, because i think the absence of sound is one of the signs of a choke rather than a gag. although i'd have to say that a gag is fairly active, iykwim, because they're really just trying to manouevre food forward in their mouths.
if you look up gagging on the blog you should find a few posts on the subject, particularly one where quite a few women discussed how often (or in fact how infrequently) their children choked. i reckon dd only choked twice, tbh, it's pretty rare. but you do have to watch for it. and it was on apple both times. i think it's the devil's fruit, blw-wise... mind you she stopped having difficulties when she got teeth so i could give her the whole thing (once i'd taken a bite out to get her started) and she'd scrape at the skin. you could try that, i'd say, but lay off the slices etc as i personally think they break off too easily.
it's my opinion, tbh, that babies have a learning curve with gagging, and that they learn how to manouevre the food better with time. like, two weeks, nothing terrible. but my experience comes from babies at six months, so it may be different in a child who's more developed.
you wouldn't have to muck about with sticks of things or chopping banana with skin on, i'd have thought. i'd still steam things like carrot, however, just for a while, and when you give it raw i'd do it more in slices than in sticks. again, it's a hard food, it could break off. but that's just my opinion. gill rapley talks about sticks a lot but again on the blog our consensus was that most babies liked something a bit more substantial to hold onto quite quickly. that's the difference between research and actually doing it, probably.
have you seen the recipe for sweet potato wedges on the blog? they were a great favourite with dd in the beginning, because they're dry on the outside but kinda mushy inside, so she could suck at them.
hhhmmmm, it's really interesting, this. it's made me realise that i know fuck all about giving finger food to a one-year-old. dd was such a different animal at one than six months, so much more manually dextrous and with her pincer grip. i tell you what, frozen peas are great...
if i were you i'd try the sweet potato wedges (because they are yummy) and see what he's like with some rather over-cooked broccoli. both of them are pretty difficult to choke on as they're mushy, so they'll be good to learn on. i'd also maybe give him some not at dinnertime but for a snack (altho' broccoli can be messy...) so that he's not actually hungry hungry, iykwim? ooooh, and steak, a big hunk of it to chew on... lovely.
imo you do have to ride out the gagging stage, because they're learning, but it really shouldn't go on for long. i always recommend an infant resus course (to all parents, btw, not just BLWish ones), it helps you to be more confident about gagging i personally think and lord knows could come inhandy some day.