OK BLWers... level with me about the choking / gagging thing...

[GogoTheSmall]

Hi there, I have a question about BLW that I hope someone can help with. I love the sound of it and cannot wait to give it a go with my dd. It seems like the natural next step from the baby-led bf we have been doing - shes been feeding herself since she was born in a way, regulating her own appetite, working out how to get at the milk etc...

BUT I cant help but worry about choking, and I just know it will be the first thing my mum / MIL / friends ask about when they find out we're going to do BLW.

PLUS my dd is a really choky baby, and it seems to me that every other feed ends in coughing and spluttering. She has good days and bad days but overall there doesnt seem to be much co-ordination between swallowing and breathing! Poor mite! She even chokes and splutters on her own spit several times a day.

Ive looked at Aitch's brilliant blog and read all about the difference between choking and gagging, but I'm wondering if my baby might be especially bad at knowing when not to take a breath IYSWIM??

Or perhaps it is just her age (15 weeks) and maybe she will get better as she gets nearer the magic 26.

Does this sound familiar to anyone else doing BLW? Did your baby choke a lot on milk and was it a problem when time came to start solids? Thanks for any advice.

Mine gags on milk far more than anything else - quite a fast let-down sometimes, I think. At 15 weeks she'll have a pretty robust gag reflex - this should lessen as she reaches 26 weeks. Some are quicker, some slower, but I wouldn't worry about it just yet.

It might be worth trying to go on a baby first aid course before you need to think about weaning and then you will feel confident in dealing with the gagging / choking and will have a stronger answer to any one not so sure. I find if you are confident and believe that your LO can cope with the gagging (and believe that this is a positive sign as it means they are not choking IYSWIM) then others feel more confident around you. My LO has gagged more on water than on solids and never lets a quick 'gag' get in the way of a good meal! Usually the food will come straight back out and then he will pick it up and back in the mouth it goes!

BLW is the best thing we ever did. My lo eats like a horse!

My lo is just 26 weeks so started her on banana - the gagging is slightly disconceting at first. But it doesnt bother her one bit - if she takes too big a piece it just pops back out. Stick with it - I worry a bit less now!

I wouldn't worry about this at the moment as she maybe hasn't learnt to swallow without feeding, that's why they drool, cos they don't have the sense to swallow it! She will probably grow out of it.

BUT to put your mind at ease (a bit!) if she is coughing and spluttering, then she is NOT choking.
True choking is a total blockage of the throat so no sound or air can come in or out, so if she can cough and make gagging noises then she is okay.
Gagging is good as it means they are learning exactly what size food they can and can't swallow.
DD gagged on things with skins, like nectarines and peaches, but never choked.

DS never choked on his milk (bf baby) but gagged quite a lot in the beginning of blw I seem to remember....I did worry at first but very quickly saw that he wasn't bothered by it & was able to deal with it on his own - by the time I had rushed to my feet to administer help he had either spat the piece out or swallowed it & was onto the next bit ...sometimes he gagged so much he threw up...but even then it didnt seem to faze him - quite often he would just start eating his vom again unless we cleared it up smartish - all with the biggest grin on his face! I just learned to sit back & let him deal with it...until one day he didnt gag anymore...& I cannot remember when that was at all!

The way I look on gagging now is that its just something that babies need to work through - just like falling over a lot when they start walking....it's something they need to do to get used to the limits of themselves. They dont come to any real harm usually & just get past it eventually....its just a case of being there with them in case it is more serious & knowing what to do. Its also worth remembering that it's just as easy for adults to gag on some food or their toothbrush if it hits the right/wrong spot so its nothing to be scared of in babies...same as it's just as easy for a adult to trip over as a child

i totally agree with terramum, totally. but i'd also second loris' suggestion to do a wee resus course. i'd tell everyone that, mind you, just cos i think it's important for all parents to know. but i quizzed the woman who gave the class and she was very determined that if you did the right things in a full-on choking incident you'd save the baby, so i was much reassured. don't think she did it more than twice as it was and a slap on the back fixed it. but i liked knowing how to do an emergency tracheotomy just in case...

Emergency tracheotomy, wow [gulp]... first aid course sounds like a very good idea.

I guess it does make sense that fluids would go down the wrong way more easily than solids.

Well we've still got a few months before we begin so I'll get genned (sp?) up. Even though she's been showing great interest in everything I eat since about 9 weeks!! If it weren't for MN I might have mistaken that for a sign of readiness!

Great advice, very reassuring. Thanks everyone.

I've been doing BLW with DD for about 4 weeks now and also doing a little pureering on the side. She LOVES it and has pretty much stopped taking stuff off the spoon. So much happier bashing bits of food about and doing it herself. Yesterday, a friend came round with her DS, same age, who is being Karamelised, and watched in astonishment. 'Won't she choke?' etc. Was so proud of DD handling a piece of dried apricot so asked if she wanted to give some to DS. She, a bit hesitant, but did give him some. Cue MAJOR choking incident. Purple in face, silent, slap on back, out shoots apricot... Feeling a bit guilty.

That's the thing, though, isn't it - they learn to handle food so fast that 4 weeks in you're much more relaxed about what you'd give them, and you do forget that you actually started with very soft steamed stuff. I think the same when I see my daughter happily chewing an apricot, or a bit of beefburger, etc. I hope your friend isn't too put off - dried apricot takes a little bit of skill, that's all.

re the emergency trach, i've already had to use my heimlich skills in the park on a toddler who was blue in the face... the more people around who know how to do that, the better for everyone i say.
and lol at the dried apricot, like habbibu says you were cocky after 4 weeks!

Also like the idea of Karamelising children - lovely with a spot of whipped cream?

You're both right, I was! I'm quite lucky that at nursery she's being given lots of fingers foods that the older ones are having so is getting a boost there too. I think my friend is well and truly put off and don't actually think she'd go the BLW route anyway as she's always looked at me like i was mad when I've talked about it. Horses for courses and all that though.

Where can you find out about baby resus course? I've googled to no avail

Yes, I'd love to know too. In case friend's DS comes round again.

I also did the first aid course and dragged DP there too. This gave us the confidence to do BLW. My DD only did a bit of gagging (not much at all though). I'd sit there with a fixed smile on my face saying in a sing song voice 'oh dear spit that bit out and lets try another bit' all the time thinking 'OMG is she going to choke aggghhh'. Of course she wasn't bothered in the slightest, she has never so much as coughed on a bit of food. I soon learnt to chill out. She now eats like a horse - well a horse with a really varied diet!

Ask your HV about first aid courses. We did ours with them. They even had those plastic dolls that you could slap on the back if you felt like it. Didn't cover trachiotomies though. I remember watching an old episode of MASH where they did one using a ballpoint pen and a penknife. That'll have to do!!

I found this www.sja.org.uk/sja/training-courses/courses-for-the-general-public.aspx looks good

Thanks for that Jodieg1, I've been trying to find courses like that for ages to no avail! Am going to book on one.
Just found a site describing how to do an emergency tracheotomy... feeling a bit queasy now; must toughen up.

there is one as part of the ante-natal classes at my local hospital. i just went along when dd was 5 months.

lol the emergency trach wasn't quite part of teh course, but i remember seeing Clive do one on Lucy Robinson on Neighbours when i was a kid and was Very Impressed.

DD gagged far more when i was trying to feed her puree or mashed stuff than she ever has since we went down the blw route instead

With DS2 it was awful for about 2 weeks, but then he suddenly got the hang of it. I would avoid any kind of 'solid' or uncooked food for the first month until you witness your baby moving food around their mouth. Then maybe try a crust of toast, grated apple etc.

I think my first food were:

pasta twirls with homemade veggie sauce
long slivers of cooked carrot
broccoli

then we tried:
grated apple
toast
noodles etc

and we're now mostly on what DH, DS1 and I eat, including strips of cooked meat. He loves sucking on fried steak!

I have to say, I would wait until 7 months at least, so they've got a bit better at sitting up