Help! 6m old gagging/vomiting on finger foods but refuses to eat from spoon...

[RunJHC]

Title says it all really. DS is nearly 7m, we started doing BLW at 26 wks but he seems to have the strongest gag reflex ever - he gags and vomits on every mouthful of food to the point where he's thrown up all the milk in his stomach and his throat is really sore . But he did seem to enjoy feeding himself IYSWIM.

So decided to try purees instead just to see if he would get used to swallowing food but he absolutely refuses to be spoon fed. We've tried the distracting/shoving spoon into open mouth 'technique' but he's figured that one out now and keeps his mouth clamped shut. We've tried feeding him before/after/during milk feeds but to no avail. We've just tried giving him a pre-loaded spoon to feed himself which worked for one mouthful then he just banged the spoon until the food had flown off it...

I know it doesn't really matter at his age and we're still feeding him loads of milk, but it's just miserable for both of us trying to do this every day, so grateful for any advice/ideas of things I could try with him

Thanks

I'd leave it for a few days, then try again with something really soft, in VERY tiny pieces.

But I would give him a few days break, to forget about his gagging so far.

Not very helpful advice, but my DD took ages (I mean months) to get the hang of swallowing. I just kept thinking "I don't know any grown-ups who can't eat / use a spoon, she'll".
Perhaps just have a break and try not to stress about it, just follow his lead!

ds didn't really get the hang of eating till about 10m. 7m is still really young, he'll get there when he's ready. till then, just let him experiment with food (especially whatever's on your plates) if/when he wants too.

the breakthrough with was putting him in the kitchen in a nappy with a pot of yoghurt and a spoon in front of him. he got the hang of dipping the spoon into the pot and licking it. of course, he then worked out he could dip his finger too, which was much messier, but the point was he was eating I know yoghurt isn't solid food, but he got the hang of that around the same time. I think he was just ready to eat more than milk a bit later than some other babies.

try not to worry