Terrified of choking impacting on weaning journey

[Pickingausernameistricky]

Hi all, little one is 6.5 months. I initially felt quite confident with weaning. She had some mash potato this week and gagged and coughed and then vomited it all up (I know gagging is normal) I did well not to react and remain positive but inside panicked.
yesterday she had some banana and the same thing happened and now she is not wanting to eat 😭

I am SO anxious about it all now I’ve been really worrying about it all. How to you sit with the anxiety of choking?
has anyone had a baby who seems to go off weaning and got them back into it?

Try finger food? Less likely to slide down her throat unintentionally.

I think purée is actually more likely to cause choking

I tried that with the banana and she gagged and coughed it up again! What finger food would you suggest?

Babies have very sensitive gag reflexes to start with so a lot of stuff might make them gag, without them even being close to choking on it. In terms of the anxiety about choking, make sure you know what to do if it does happen (Red Cross have an excellent app for kids first aid stuff). Choking is silent so messy coughing and gagging etc sounds bad but is unlikely to be harmful.

I would let her play with her food and go for puree, and small bits and don't stress.

I would thin down purees to almost a liquid consistency and stick with that for a few weeks before trying anything thicker, just to get back in the swing of things for both of you. For a guide in consistency, look at the first stage weaning prepared purees

Puree is not higher risk of choking. (Medical professional in the field here)

Choking is a solid bolus getting trapped between the vocal cords/ upper airway and preventing air getting to the lungs. Puree can and does go the wrong way but is lower risk for choking. Finger foods are just as high risk of choking.

With weaning babies, there's loads of gagging and reacting and often vomiting especially if they are more sensory aware. It's how their bodies are processing all the new information. Take it slowly and at their speed - let them play with foods on a high chair tray and play with the spoon with texture on etc.

Maybe reading up with reassure you, it reassured me. Gill Rapley's book Baby Led Weaning is very good, you can get it as an audio book as well.

It is totally normal and healthy for babies to gag - they're learning how to process food for the very first time. Actually, there's lots of advice out to say don't intervene with the gagging as babies sort it out themselves and learn from it. I know it's hard but it'll get easier as you go on. Give your DC the best chance to explore what food is all about.

As you know gagging is totally normal and it’s really important part of babies learning to eat without choking. Remember at this early stage it really is about learning to eat rather than actually eating the food. Milk is still their main source of nutrition so just let her play and handle food and try what she wants when she wants it. She has loads of time to learn before she needs to be transitioning away from milk. The solid starts app/website has loads of really helpful information including tips on how to prepare different foods for different age babies to minimise choking risks. I’d also recommend you go an infant first aid course just so you feeel
prepared in the unlikely event your daughter did choke.

Banana is a great food for babies… but it is very slippery so can be hard for them at first. Try leaving the skin on the bottom part so they can hold that. You could also try something like toast fingers or cucumber sticks with the skin left on the bottom. Honestly though don’t stress about it too much … my daughter played lots with food and did try things but she barely ate anything (apart from porridge) until she was about 11 months. Now at 15 months we can’t get food to her fast enough. She eats just about everything and shovels it in her wee face like she hasn’t eaten for weeks.

Spoon loading worked for me when it was things like mashed potatoes, tgey can't get it all of tge spoon and helps them with coordination

Thank you! I’ve downloaded the app, so helpful.

Thanks that’s so reassuring. She had the banana in her hand and was munching - the time before she fed herself the banana off a spoon and I’d mashed it up. So hard to know what to do! Glad your little one loves food now!

Thank you! She already feeds herself with a spoon or I load it, but will keep trying!

Thank you for your kind words and reassurance. I’ll check out the website!
I panicked as a breastfeeding site said their iron stores start to deplete at 6 months and food is key to this when starting solids to keep it up!
but will take some pressure off both of us 😊