Would you recommend weaning with pouches in this scenario?

[Starrystarrysky]

Sorry for the long post! DS is 7.5 months old, we started weaning at 6 months.

He will only eat plain Greek yoghurt. This is currently all his solid diet consists of.

Everything else, he eats one spoonful and then firmly closes his mouth and won't eat any more. Even Greek yoghurt with something mixed in gets refused. We have tried this 1-2 times per day, variety of foods, so a lot of tries.

He is powerful for his age, and any finger food he bites off a huge piece and then chokes on it (chokes, not gags, I am aware of the difference). So I want to leave finger foods until 9 months when you can start to give them smaller pieces.

I just tried two pouches with him, as his nursery have asked for a number of foods to be tried at home first - and he ate 4-6 spoonfuls each time. I think it's the texture, it's intensely smooth, in a way that I don't think I can replicate with home food.

I originally thought that I would only feed him home-made food. But now thinking that if pouches are what he will eat, might be worth using these and then keeping on trying other textures until he eventually gets it? Would you agree with that?

I was thinking that if I stick to veg pouches that should avoid the sugar issue with pouches, only feed it on a spoon, and he's getting protein from the yoghurt so he has a protein source. Anything else I'm missing?

Personally I would just continue as normal rather than going to pouches because the more textures they are exposed to the better. If all he ever knows is perfectly smooth textures then in a few months when you want to try and introduce other bits he will struggle with the change, I’d just stick at it.

Honestly, give him finger food. It is incredibly unlikely he is choking every time. You're also stopping him developing the muscles needed to swallow food properly.

Food is fun til they're 1, but they need to be exposed to food.

You can make your own purees at home using a blender, smoothie maker or food processor.

I've tried tons of home-made purees, all types of fruit, bunch of veg, oat porridge, small bits of egg - uniform refusal to everything. I can definitely keep trying, I'm just worried that if he refuses everything, he's not getting used to textures etc. anyway...

With the finger foods, for example I gave him a long bit of banana that matches the Solid Starts picture. He bit off a solid third of it in one go and then tried to swallow it straight off (as he hasn't got as far as chewing mushy textures, I don't think he's got that concept). So I know I sound like an over-protective mum, but my older DC definitely didn't do this!

I think that you've both confirmed that I probably need to keep going for a bit longer before panicking and running for the pouches though, so thank you both for that!

Why do you think one spoonful is bad? That’s great! I froze purées in tiny half ice cubes so there wasn’t so much waste. Slowly one spoonful turned into two etc.
Having said that, nothing wrong with pouches either.

DD2 was extremely fussy when weaning (all connected to a very severe tongue tie, divided quite late, issues when healing, then feeding aversion, into weaning etc. Then compounded by her actually choking and me needed to do back blows when we tried something more substantial. All a bit of a nightmare!). I bought this: www.tommeetippee.com/en-gb/product/quick-cook-6-in-1-baby-food-maker#527=793 and went back to working through Charlotte Stirling Reed's book ("how to wean your baby") from the beginning. Once we'd done that again, i basically just started blending up whatever DD1 was having, then very very slowly decreasing the blending time to get chunkier and chunkier. It took a long time and shes still not as adventurous as DD1 was at the same age, but we are slowly getting there.

Honestly, the machine i linked makes making your purees so easy as you just put the veg in and set it going - it steams and then blends without you needing to do anything. You can then also steam carrot sticks / courgette sticks to give alongside. Doesn't matter if he's not eating them at this point, but if he plays whilst you are giving the puree, then its all building familiarity.

Are you using a good multivitamin? You need one that has iron in as if memory serves, babies have depleted iron stores after around 6months. So if he's not having meat, then you need to try and get it in by another means.

Im pretty relaxed about pouches, especially for kids who are struggling with weaning. But i tried to keep those for the 9months plus age for meals with more complex flavours. Also, keep an eye on his weight - you can ask the HV to do a weight/height check and make sure he isnt drifting off his centile.

Good luck - i found weaning to be so stressful. Was very glad when we got through it 💐

Have you tried letting him feed himself?

Try other finger foods, boiled long bits of carrot, a toast crust to gum on etc. Keep trying different textures until something sticks. I'd pop a plate on his tray every time you eat and give him something of what you're having. Most adult meals have appropriate finger food in them. Doesn't matter if he doesn't swallow, moving around the mouth is enough.

You could mix the yoghurt with purees, start with 90% yoghurt and gradually introduce more puree.

I know you say that you know the difference between choking and gagging but have you actually had to remove him from his high chair, phone an ambulance and give emergency back blows every time he’s had finger food? If so you should seek medical advice on the next steps for weaning.

If he really is having such a difficulty with being able to manage solids then simply waiting until 9 months to offer small pieces isn’t a solution. They can still choke on small pieces and that would typically be after 3 months of practise managing bigger bits.

What happens if you give him things that he can’t bite off a huge piece of? Spaghetti, melty puffs, breadsticks?

Is he hungry when you are feeding him?

Thanks, this was really helpful! DS also has a tongue tie that was identified late and they decided not to cut because his weight was doing fine at that point, so that could also be making it harder for him.

Older DD took all of 3 days to get used to food and then happily ate away, so this is all new!

I was pretty relaxed about pouches, they won’t be on them forever. Whatever works to get him going with other foods, and then you can slowly start to introduce fresh food/chunkier purées. Don’t beat yourself up, parenting is hard, give yourself a break.

Pre weaning (around the feeding aversion time), we also had an assessment by the SALT feeding team - they look at the mechanics of the mouth / tongue and check if there are any issues. We got referred through the HV. You could have a chat to your HV about whether that might be worth considering? In our borough, its a different team to the SALT team that help children with their speaking, so there isnt the same waiting lists and we got an appointment just a few weeks after being referred.

Pouches are fine at 7.5 months. My dd was not interested in solids at that age. She became more interested at around 9 or 10 months iirc. The hv was trying to stress me out about it, but they need mostly milk till 12 mrhs

You can make your own pouches with home made food if that is what you wish to feed him.
I bought some resealable ones in amazon years ago, and 5y later, theyre still in good order and we still used them!
Personally, I’d insist with finger food and his Greek yogurt.
Waiting until 9months because you can give smaller bits doesn’t work-if your child chokes/gags is not gonna automatically get better at 9m. It takes practice
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I hadn't thought of spaghetti so will definitely give that a go!

I'd also tried toast with no luck, but possibly breadsticks might be more fun for him to hold, so might spark his interest more.

So thanks for that, I will go away and try those.

I definitely freaked out when he was choking - so you're right, I probably need to be a bit more creative rather than avoiding finger food options out of that fear of it happening again.

I think so, because if I give him yoghurt instead he wolfs it down. I always leave at least half an hour after a feed, and he's still a very frequent feeder.

I could definitely try stretching it out a bit more, and seeing if that makes a difference.

He's never had any reliable feeding cues before the screaming his head off point, so isn't helpful in that regard!

If your older one was very good with eating, it will be a surprise to see them gagging. You probably witnessed gagging not choking, unless you had to intervene to get the food out?
That gagging is them learning, it sounds uncomfortable but it's good for them in the long term. I'll see if I can find the YouTube video I watched with lots of examples of gagging in babies.

This is the type of video I'm on about.

Maybe try it the other way round and give him food before milk

Young babies have a good gag reflex and are generally able to regurgitate big pieces of food if they can’t swallow it. As long as the food item is squashable they really won’t choke in the real sense of the word. Just pop a couple of items of food on their tray and leave them to it. My DGS loves toast, banana, butternut squash / carrot cooked until soft, porridge made with oat milk, soft chicken, pieces of cooked steak and so on. They should still be getting their main nutrients and calories from breast milk / formula at this age.

The smaller bits at 9months assumes they have been self feeding since 6months so you might not be able to go straight to that.

At 7 months my baby was only eating Greek yoghurt and (mostly fruit) pouches, sometimes well blended soup. She's 9 months now and eats all kinds of cooked vegetables mashed with a fork, mashed banana with lumps, cottage cheese, small pieces of cheddar, oats, pasta with sauce and tuna in it, boiled eggs (mashed with fork) etc. I spoon feed her as she's not great at sitting unsupported but it really seems like everything is a phase.