Weaning with a premmie

[Emmyduck123]

Hi everyone!
My daughter was born at 33 weeks last August, and is turning 11month in a week. We have been weaning her with 4mth and 6mth fruit puree pouches, which she is handling brilliantly! Due to her age, we are trying to get her on something with a bit more oomph, starting with a thicker texture and small pureed lumps.
Each time we try, she gags and chokes. I know this is normal when babies learn different textures, but it's been 2 months since we started trying and still no further forward. Her consultant(for prem related issues) and dietician both say keep trying and we will investigate further after her 1st birthday, but im not getting anywhere finding out if this is the norm. Has anyone experienced this or anything similar?

I don’t have any tips I’m afraid except perseverance & possibly BLW. I’m also finding it tricky to wean my preemie (32 weeker), although things have recently started to improve at around 11mo corrected.

Like you, we started off really well with fruit and veggie purées but struggled to get her to try anything with lumps (she had one lot of chunky avo puree, gagged, vomited & then refused to touch anything similar).

She subsequently refused spoon feeding, even with smooth purées, so we (reluctantly, as I was very afraid of choking) tried BLW, which she seems to enjoy. It took a few weeks for her to start trying the food but she’s now munching on loads of stuff, although a lot does end up on the floor!

Have you tried BLW, or is there a medical reason to limit to purées at the moment?

I did BLW with my 31 weeker. He especially liked hard things like crackers.

Interesting, my daughter also likes hard foods! Cucumber is her favourite at the moment

We need foods with a high fat content(shes only just grown out of 3-6 month clothes so is still a little dot) so we were advised to try with the pouches. Im going to start trying boiled carrots, cucumber etc to see if something soft will help her start, we've tried baby crisps etc and shes having none of it.
I had hoped(somewhat selfishly) that others had this issue too so I wasn't just worrying over everything for nothing 🙈

Mine weren’t early but we had similar problems with DC1 and it turned out to be Tongue Tie.