8 month old son wont eat any lumpy solid keeps gagging need advice desparetly

[motherhubbard82]

hi my ds 8 months old when trying to get him to eat any foods that are not purred even if its just thicker he gags chokes starts acting like he is gonna be sick i just feel so all over the place with it its really getting me down he is my 3rd child and had no problems with the others but he was premature had a really difficult start and its been difficult from day one also he wakes up during the night for food sorry about the essay please can anyone help many thanks on the upside weve got teeth yay lol : )

Hi my dd is 8 months also - will ds eat finger foods?

I'm afraid I can't really help - only offer you a bit of 'you're not alone' type of sympathy... I was just about to post virtuallly the same thing when I spotted your message! My DS2 is 9 months and again, no lumps at all - just lots of gagging and the occasional puke. I've tried to get him to eat finger foods too, but again, he just gags when they go in his mouth - or he throws them on the floor. So I'll be watching this thread with interest...

But let's console ourselves in the meantime - presumably they won't be just eating smooth purees by the time they go to school/uni/get married etc!!!!

J xxx

I know it is hard when you try to introduce lumpy/finger foods etc...their natural instinct is to gag...my daughter did this a few times, but I just kept trying....I had a few "oh my god she's choking" moments but they easily bring back up whatever it was...after a few days she got the hang of it and is good with finger foods...rusks are good becasue they get mushy, toast as well (try breaking off really tiny bits and popping it in their mouth)

I've been doing baby led weaning with my 7 month dd (letting her feed herself with fist size finger foods) and she gags a lot less than my ds who went the traditional puree route. Although when she did go through a stage of gagging/vomiting, my HV suggested not feeding in bouncy chair or car seat. She said her head was tilted back in the chair/seat and when she gagged the food fell back down her throat instead of into the front of her mouth to spit out or have another go at swallowing. It worked, no problems since she's been sitting bolt upright to feed.

I think all you can do really is keep offering them finger food and lumpy food and let them gag, i think its a learning process that they just have to do to get a grasp on how to chew and swallow. If you are really worried its probably worth a check that there is nothing physiological wrong.

Sitting up straight is a must I think and soft food (pears are good)is probably helpful at the start. DS ate finger foods before lumpy foods and that seemed to help him work out what to do. I let him pick it up and bite it himself. If it gets thrown on the floor just keep offering (don't put too much in front of them though, that makes DS throw stuff!)

Good luck

Try www.babyledweaning.co.uk

my DD1 contually gagged on lumpy food no matter how often i gave it to her - she still wont eat anything with bits/lumps in it (2.9yr). she would take finger food - mango, cooked veg, biscotti's and gum/chew them from about 8 months. i eventually went to the GP about it as i thought this can't be normal, however he advised that some kids take to lumpy food better than others (his 13 year old still won't take lumpy food) and basically to bypass this stage - may mean that some foods are pureed for longer but just to go with what she likes and not to worry about it as long as they are continuing to grow/thrive.

babyledweaning.com I think you mean?

also I found if I put too much stuff in front of ds, he stuffs it ALL in - then cries because he can't suck/chew/swallow!

My 9mo is good with finger food - pear, toast, anything off my plate! and seems ok with lumpy food if he likes it, very stubborn if not, but he has no teeth yet! How lumpy should food be when he's just gumming it all to death? Hope this isn't too far off the subject

I'm so depressed with weaning. It was lovely in the beginning introducing pureed veg which my DD1 wolfed down, but as i've progressed to the lumpier/thicker puree i've gradually become more and more deflated. It takes her so long to eat a small amount and then she'll gag and throw it all up and cry. I've spent hours lovingly making simple but tasty food and she just refuses to eat it, she turns her head away, presses her lips together, burst in to tears. I've tried putting finger foods on the tray but she chucks them on the floor or doesn't show any interest in them. I've tried playing 'boo' and put toys on the tray to make meal times more fun but as soon as i put the spoon in front of her she refuses to eat. I've tried spacing out her meals, but tonight after a 1pm lunch a 3pm 4oz of formula milk and a 7:30 dinner she turned her head away and burst in to tears. I'm worried about how little food she is getting. I'm sorry to hijack the thread and go on a bit but feeling close to tears and very depressed and needed to unload!

my friends little boy never did lumps, it was puree only till he was about 1 (he used to just play with finger food the throw it on the floor) then he just grasped the idea of what to do with chewing/swallowing thing and started on normal family diet.

asampras - its prob not worth stressing you and LO out for the sake of a few lumps, id be tempted to go back to puree to get both of your confidences back. When your both happy again it may be worth having a bit of both pred puree with only a little limpy food to start and once its accepted grad increase the lumpy stuff.

My DS hated lumpy puree but was fine with finger food. My theory was that he didn't like accepting stuff on a spoon and finding unidentified bits in it, but didn't mind chewing something he could see was solid, iykwim.

Have you tried him on finger foods/blw? As long as he's chewing some solids he'll be fine so don't stress about the purees.

I sit down and eat my own meal with her so she sees me eating and i give her lumpy puree as well as laying out finger foods on the tray in front of her high chair like toast cut in to fingers, baby sweetcorn,mangetout, peas, biscotti's, bread sticks, chopped grapes and cherry tomatoes, cherios etc but she isn't very interested, she doesn't really put them in to her mouth just waves them around a bit then drops them, it doesn't seem like she has much to eat in a day and this worries me especially as i'm cutting down on her milk feeds (she's 7 months old). But now she's finding meals so unpleasant she's refusing the purees too. I really try to remain calm and i walk away and make cups of tea or do some washing up whilst she plays with the finger food and then come back and smile and encourage her but she is increasingly rejecting food.

Is the fact that she hardly eats anything okay? i'm scared of her starving! will she suddenly pick up the finger foods one day and that will be that?

My 10mo dd will happily eat finger food but you try feeding her lumpy puree and she just spits it out. Go figure.

You're not alone. I just think she'll get there when she's ready. You don't see many school kids being fed their school lunch on a spoon by their weary mother.

DS neatly ate all the food I spent hours preparing, progressing logically through each stage just as Annabel Karmel told me he would - smug

However, my smugness has come back to bite me on the proverbial, since my DD is not at all interested in the lumpy stage, just styles her hair with mashed potato.

So it's trial and error with food: she enjoys crusty bread, baby pasta with peas & sweetcorn (with a cunningly disguised vegetable sauce), stir-fried chicken and noodles, raisins in those little boxes, peeled apple, breadsticks, broccoli and green beans. Perhaps because she is my 2nd I'm less bothered about the gagging until she goes red and her eyes start to bulge ..... Yet strangely she never gags on chocolate

asampras, don't worry about the solids for now. She's only tiny and really needs the bulk of her calories to come from milk. Solids only need to replace milk after the age of 1 so I would up her milk again and let her get on with playing with finger foods. She will learn what to do with them after a while but won't starve as she'll be getting everything she needs from milk.

FWIW, my ds2 started on purees at 5mo, I tried him on lumps at about 7mo and he hated them with a passion. I went onto finger food instead and he wasn't massively keen, just messed a bit. Then at 9mo he suddenly seemed to realise what food was all about and really took off. He's now 10mo and eats whatever we are eating as a family, despite having no teeth. I think sometimes it just takes them a while to get the hang of it.

Babies - when spoonfed - generally panic when they are offered purees with lumps in as the action with which they consume the puree is more like drinking/sipping, so when they detect a lump their gagging reflex goes mad and it all comes up again. The baby basically needs to learn how to chew/gum the lumpy food instead of drinking it - it will happen eventually!

But, to avoid the little one getting an aversion to lumpy food it may be better to start with thicker consistency (perhaps adding cereal/baby rice to the purees?) - i.e. the puree will be thicker but still smooth...Another good method is to puree half of your baby's food and grind the other half. Again, this provides texture within a smooth base (i.e. no lumps)... then gradually move on to mashed food. although you seem to have tried thicker consistency foods already.

If baby doesn't take to finger foods, let him feel all the food that you introduce to him (a good idea in all cases), even purees - it's messy but he will probably start sucking the stuff of his fingers and may then graduate to finger foods eventually..

But you may well have tried all of this already !

But, like Olihan says, don't worry, the weaning period is just that - milk provides the majority of the nutrients during the 1st year .

Good luck!

i would just skip the lumpy foods and go straight to finger foods.