He keeps choking......

[mummalish]

My baby is eagerly taking food from me and wanting to eat it, he is 6 months old, and has 2 (very sharp) teeth. He doesnt seem to mind the chunks of food, but bites down and takes big pieces of food, and then chokes. He doesnt chew, the big lumps just make him choke. Have given him, banana, a piece of chicken, a stick of very softly cooked carrot, rice cake, toast, dried mango, roast potato.

What to do, want him to enjoy his food, but I panic when I see him gag on a chunk of food and get it out his mouth. Is he too young for this?

BLWers will tell you it's all part of the process but when DS was like this at 6mo I took it as a sign that he wasn't yet ready for finger food. I gave him some mush in the meantime and reintroduced finger food at about 7/8 months, by which time he was fine with it.

ok, firstly dont panic do you know infant resusuitantion? if not ask hv/ local surestart and book on a course, as even if you follow MegBussets advice one day your lo could get hold of a something they werent suppose to have and choke

secondly, armed with the more confidence from knowing what to do if he chokes, are you sure he is choking or is he gagging? The gag reflex is there to protect the baby from choking, the easiest way to tell is choking is silent, gagging a bit noisy

if he is gagging, smile at him so he doesnt panic and cough and encouage him to cough by 7/poss 8 months it will have stopped

Gagging is perfectly normal - relax, smile, and make enthusiastic chewing motions, and he'll sort himself out

But making sure you are confident about what you would do if he really choked is great advice whatever

My dd was a bit too eager at the start as well and it was very hard not to tip her upside down and pat her back at the first sign of her gagging.

Don't want to tell you to carry on regardless if you are finding it upsetting but if it is any reassurance my dd did calm down and stopped gagging after about a week or so.

Thanks everyone, so do you think I should stop giving him things to eat for a while till he's ready?

I'd say he sounds like he is ready he just needs more practice.