Fear of chocking

[Puddingmum]

My wee one is almost 9 months and she is on constant puree food. She is happy healthy and a very chunky baby.

Every time I give her something more solid she end up chocking the last time being the worst( had to perform the Heimlich manouver) she was completly fine after and looking for more food but now i am petrified of giving her anything that is chunkier than purees.

Has anyone any tips of how to move past this? Or am I focusing to much on this when she has been getting on fine with purees. I'm worried that if i don't get past this or get her onto move lumpy stuff it will affect her as she grows.

Thank you x

Have you tried giving gradually more solid textures (eg purée to minced to lumps to firmer lumps to food that needs chewing)? It sounds like she’s being given solid food that she expects to swallow like it has been puréed. Introduce new consistency gradually

Is she choking or is she gagging? Gagging is common when weaning as they get used to solid foods in their mouths. There are some really helpful infographics on Pinterest that detail the differences between choking and gagging which might be helpful. But if she's only used to purees I would just move on to the second stage ones with small lumps in, then on to the ones with bigger lumps in and slowly introduce finger foods alongside those

When you say choking, what do you mean exactly? Babies need to learn to eat lumps so coughing and going red and gagging are all perfectly normal. I totally get you though, I couldn't cope at all and had to leave my mum, MIL and husband to give the initial solids while I kept up with purees until the baby learnt to eat lumps better and then I relaxed. Two things I wish I did in hindsight: 1. Do a first aid course and 2. Relax and just give grated cheese and other very small things that they won't choke on.

Don't worry about giving big bits of bread of anything yet. SR Nutrition on Instagram has lots of good posts on weaning.

You'll get there! I did and believe me, I never thought I would!