ok. blw. babies gag alot when trying this?

[madeindevon2]

over past few days baby (32 weeks old) has chewed (sucked...he has no teeth) on bit of toasted pitta and bit of cheese on toast.
he shoves it in, gags a bit and sometimes looks like choking on a bit. this scares me of course. do all babies do this?
mum and sister say im crazy to give baby food in this way.

yes it's completely normal.

They have an amazing thing called the gag reflex (not to be confused with choking) so if food goes to far down their throat they just gag a bit and it pops back out. It actually prevents them from choking.

my dd used to gag on everything she ate. its completely normal some babies have a more sensitive gag reflex than others. I never used to let it worry me, although i did find it a little embarrasing when in public!!

As others have said - the gag reflex is something we are all born with & it is designed to protect the airway. Everyone gags on something occasionally - I did it myself the other day with my toothbrush . It just means something has got too far towards the airway. Babies take a little time to learn how far they can shove things back in their mouths & learn where the limits/walls of their mouth were. No different from falling over countless times before they get the hang of walking.

My DS gagged on pretty much everything when we started BLW, even to the point that he threw up occasionally. It never bothered him (even the puke which unless we were very quick he would start eating again )...I never had to intervene at all with him. By the time I had got out of my chair & rushed round the table to him he has either spat the offending piece of food out or move it away from the back of his mouth. He soon grew out of it - can't remember when though - obviously wasn't significant a step ..I think he just gradually did it less & less.

they all do it, some more than others. we all do, in fact, it's just that our gag relfex has moved back further. there is a rather filthy example of this where certain ladies train their gag reflex to go very far back indeed, if you think about it.

aitch