10 month old strong gag reflex :(

[Potatowaffler26]

Hi everyone, was just wondering if anyone has any ideas/advice.

My little one is coming up to 11 months soon.
Since starting weaning at 6 months we’ve been struggling with what I think is an overactive gag reflex and a high palate. Never had issues before this.

He can only tolerate very smoothie puréed food, anything with lumps (even small ones) causes uncontrollable gagging which makes him vomit. He struggles with finger foods (toast, even melty puffs) as they get stuck in the roof of his mouth which causes more gagging and vomiting too.
We have an older child too who obviously brings home lots of colds so he’s often snotty which makes it even worse.
We have a telephone appointment with speech and language therapy next week (health visitor referred us when I spoke to her few weeks ago) but wondering whether to ask GP or HV for paediatric referral or if I need a dietician? Or both?! Would happily pay private if worth it ? Feeling a bit helpless today 😞

We had this and had all sorts of problems until we decided to stick with smooth purées until his swallow matured.

Thanks for your reply. Good to know you’re grew out of it - can you remember his old they were?

Have they got a Tongue tie @Potatowaffler26? My DS would only tolerate smooth purées until 12 months and his was an undiagnosed TT.

Hi @Potatowaffler26

Not sure if you’ll see this, but wondered whether speech and language were a help to you at all and how you’re doing?

We are in a very similar position with my 10 month old baby. He can tolerate some textures (weetabix, melty puff sticks, soggy Rice Krispies are ok, and some mashed food). The GP has today made us a referral to speech and language but I’m wondering whether it will be the answer to our problems like I’m hoping!

He had a tongue tie that wasn’t picked up until 12 weeks, which was snipped then but they confirmed the inefficient way in which he’d learnt to breastfeed left him with a very high palette. Feeling a bit lost with weaning when all he really wants is yoghurt :(

Hello,

sorry to hear your little one is struggling, it’s so awful for them (and their parents too!).

So we saw a really lovely paediatric SALT who came to the house to watch my son eat. She assessed his chewing and swallow reflex and was happy there was no issue with either. She encouraged us to keep trying with thicker textures like Weetabix, houmous and melty puffs. She also suggested giving small hard things like cheerios and raisins to keep practicing moving things around the mouth.

My son is now 18 months old and hasn’t had any issues with gagging for months - it seemed to rapidly improve once he got to around 14 months!. Our GP offered a prescription for anti reflux to give when he was snotty as that was a huge problem for us but we didn’t need to use it.
He’s not the best eater and has good and bad days but I think that’s just his preference, he’d eat biscuits all day instead if we let him!

I hope this helps in some way and you get some proper support. You have my full sympathy, I was so stressed about this for months!

@Potatowaffler26 thank you so much for taking the time to reply. It’s really reassuring to hear your little one hasn’t had gagging issues for a long time! I’m so glad it worked out for you and there were no major issues.

I have been feeling so lost with it all. The more textured foods he just projectile vomits the entire contents of his stomach, it’s so awful. Hummus, avocado, blended beef mince, and some others we tried all just come straight back up. I tried him on a pastry pinwheel as a friend said to me, oh it’s just pastry it will flake off. He spent ages chewing, then as he tried to swallow it all came up, along with his earlier milk feed. Isn’t it awful?! It feels the sick just keeps coming too:

He in general isn’t overly interested in food (unless it’s yoghurt) which does make things hard. I’m so worried about giving him a complex around food and taking away the enjoyment!

All my mum friends with babies of a similar age are on 3 meals a day and we can barely manage a few mouthfuls of two.

I don’t blame him for wanting to eat biscuits every day! I think they’re a staple in our house!

You have really helped me though thank you, and I hope like you we get some good support and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I feel like I’ve let him down somehow which is so silly.

Thank you again 😊

@Cdoc how are you getting on with things? On mumsnet as worried about my 9 month old who is refusing most things. We get him to have some fruit purees, but he seems to dislike textures and savoury foods. He had a tongue tie division at 4 months and worrying it could have reattached. Have you seen any improvement in the last two months?

@Cdoc @pippabg

Hello ladies, my son is exactly the same. I could have written your message.

Have you noticed improvement?

I'm so stressed with the projectile vomiting.

Hi @Hazzyyy
Sorry to hear you are going through this too, when you’re really stuck in it it’s such an overwhelming and worrying time.
My DS is nearly 18 months now and it has got better, not completely so I think we do have some sensory issues possibly, but now he gags and spits the offending food out (rice usually if there’s not enough sauce on it) rather than projectile vomiting.
Our GP referred us to a paediatrician who did lots of tests to rule things out, including abdominal ultrasound. He does have some food allergies diagnosed through blood tests. Separately to this we were under a private ENT consultant for grade 4 enlarged tonsils, which they actually think caused a lot of the vomiting, due to over sensitive gag reflex from a lack of space in the mouth. He had his tonsils out last month and we are waiting to see how much difference it makes, but to be honest he had made drastic improvements before then anyway, possibly just because his chewing matured and he got used to different textures?!
He is at nursery 3 days a week and I think that has also helped, as he tries a much wider variety of food and textures and ears very well there.

How old is your son? We saw big improvements similar to the other poster above at about 14 months. Really hope you see the same!

Hi @Cdoc

Thank you so much for replying

I am so glad it has gotten better for you! Really nice to hear and happy for you

I feel in the last wee we have very small improvements with his chewing.

I think with time and starting nursery in October there may be further improvement fingers crossed

It's so overwhelming and stressful especially when you can't help comparing to others.

I hope the tonsils out make further improvements for you but glad things are better before than anyway.

If thinks don't improve for us maybe I will also get a referral for further tests

Thanks again for your reassurance and response xxxx