7 month old not ready for solids

[marvmaise]

My DS is 7 months, from 6 months we started on purée just the jars from shops or pouches, and it took him a while to get use to it but we finally got into a routine where he would have porridge in the morning and some sort of dinner in the day. Now I've recently started making more home cooked stuff, I tried him with spag bowl the other day, it was hardly lumpy, and he completely choked, his face went red, his eyes went red, he couldn't breathe it was petrifying!
I'm having massive anxiety about weaning, but he's shown all the signs he's ready, He chokes on milk, water from sippy cup too. What am I doing wrong? Should I stop? I can't seem to get in touch with a hv either

It's still early days so I'd stick to the purees and slowly make them a bit lumpier or find things he can suck on like fruit sliced into fingers. It's all about getting used to textures and tastes at that age and there will be times that it goes a bit wrong.

The first thing I would do is brush up on the difference between choking and gagging and what do in each case. (My husband and I both have first aid certifications, and we still brushed up on it before we started weaning.) Turning red is usually gagging, which is very scary to watch, but unfortunately a normal part of the learning process, and the best thing to do is just watch to make sure it doesn't become choking.

I also agree with @MooSakah, something like fingers of fruit, cooked veg, or toast might be an easier place for him to start. I tend to think lumps in sauce are trickier than just soft-but-solid food.

There is a mesh feeder where you put something fresh and juicy, like a melon, inside. They get all the rewards of chewing, but don’t have to swallow a solid.

I tried this with ds. We only needed it for a week but it helped to isolate the chewing of the solid from the swallowing for a bit.

After that, we did mostly baby-led weaning with a side order of purée.

It sounds like you've jumped from purees to baby led weaning am I right? You can do both but I'd watch solid starts videos for some advice. Also they cover the difference between gagging (developmentally appropriate) and choking.

I would skip all the mushy puree. Just feed proper food. Puree is more of a chocking risk than actual food since babies can inhale it easier.

Their gag reflex is much shallower than ours. Watch videos to see the difference between gagging and choking. Chocking is generally silent, gagging is noisy coughing etc.