Fear of choking

[Alovelycupoftea88]

This might have been covered before but I’m struggling with weaning my baby (nearly 7 months). He loves food and will happily give anything a go but I’m so scared of him choking it’s ruining the weaning experience for me and I’m worried I will subconsciously stress him out.

I’ve watched first aid videos so I know what to do if he chokes, but I really struggle giving him finger foods as he seems to bite off big chunks and then gags and struggles to swallow. He does have lumpy foods (mashed veg, scrambled eggs, etc) but I’m too scared to give him sticks of fruit or veg. I once gave him a finger of toast but a large chunk got stuck at the back of his throat and he was gagging alarmingly and got upset, so this worried me even more!

I know I need to get over this and I want him to experience new foods so has anyone got any advice on how to deal with this? Pre-Covid I might have even asked the HV to come to my house to support me but not sure this would be allowed anymore.

Gagging is good, it means he's dealing well with chunks of food that are too big :) Everyone talks about toast being great but my daughter struggled with it too and it just all turned to dough and got stuck on the roof of her mouth. Start off cutting some softly cooked veg into very thin fingers. They recommend the length and diameter of your little finger. If you keep things thin then they are not going to become lodged, even if they do go down the wrong way (that's the thought that kept me calm). Carrots and butternut squash go nice and soft whilst still maintaining enough shape to hold. I also found penne pasta a 'calm' food to introduce as I reassured myself that -if- she struggled with a piece it is a hollow tube and so again wouldn't block the windpipe. Once you get your confidence up you can start to introduce some more different foods :)

Thanks for the reply - that’s good advice about cutting the vegetables thinly. I’m giving it a go with soft broccoli/carrot and hopefully will get my confidence up!

I was really worried too, but whenever I’ve given him buttered toast, rice cakes etc he just gums them and they turn to mush anyway. I haven’t done any “hard” veg sticks yet.

He did shovel half a rice cake in to his mouth the other day which filled it completely, he didn’t choke though, just moaned at me with a really confused look on his face - that’s how I realised

As long as you follow the safest guidelines, babies tend to figure it out themselves. We’ve evolved after all, and we’re an overpopulated planet - wouldn’t have happened if we didnt do these things as babies.

My DS is 10 months now and it’s only the past few weeks I’ve taken the plunge really and moved away from mashed up stuff. I too had a massive choking fear and was worried I was holding him back!

I’m not sure what it was, something just clicked in my head one day and I tried him with a few steamed carrots sticks / banana fingers etc and he was great! I must say it helped when he got his front teeth as he could tear bits off rather than shove as much in as possible.

Anything you can squish easily in between thumb and finger I’d say is fine. X

@Alovelycupoftea88 hope you don't mind me joining, my little boy is 7 months and I too have this fear. Just wondering how your baby is getting on with their weaning journey? I've started introducing a second meal although am still quite nervous around breads and pasta. I gave him some pasta last night with a sauce I'd made and he loved it. He did gag which I know is good (strangely 😄) but just wondering do I carry on and hope he gets the hang of it? I want to be one of those people who love the weaning process but admittedly I'm so nervous about it. I try not to let on my nerves - he loves feeding himself but will shove it all in and I'm sat like a bag of nerves trying not to shove my hand in to pull it away 🙈

Hi, my baby is now over 8 months and it’s going really well! I’m still a bit nervous but have calmed down quite a lot and am becoming a bit more adventurous. I’ve found a middle ground between finger foods and spoon-feeding that’s working quite well. These are some of the things I’ve tried that have been successful:

• I chop up pasta into sauce and he can pick up handfuls to feed himself.
• Pieces of steamed broccoli that are soft enough for him to chew with his gums.
• Mashed potato/veg actually works well as a finger food and you can put some sauce on top.
• He loves picking up chunks of white fish to eat (I take the batter off oven fillets).
• Still a bit nervy about bread as he does gag a lot with it but I give him fingers of buttered toast and he enjoys chewing on pitta fingers.
• I chop up veg (like red pepper, mushroom) into really small pieces and cook it into an omelette. He LOVES eating omelette fingers.

I’d go at your own pace and don’t force anything you’re not comfortable with - at seven months he’s so young and will get there in time. You’ll also find that he starts to regulate his eating better in time so won’t shovel so much in at once!

@Alovelycupoftea88 thanks so much for updating and so pleased your little one is enjoying their food! I think I'll hold off on the bread for a little bit, I'm the same with feeding I'm doing a mix of BLW and purée/spoon on some things. Hopefully this time next month I'll be in the same boat and can relax a little more ☺️ x

I am the same as my daughter gags a lot and has chucked up a few times. We are behind on weaning as we had to stop for 2 months so it's still all the beginning for us at 9 months but she isn't really interested unless it's porridge, finger puffs or wafers