So How Often Does Your Baby Actually Gag, Then?
Taking the first three months of BLW, let’s say, because by nine months Babybear really wasn’t gagging any more (or was doing it so efficiently that I didn’t notice) I reckon she maybe did it once a week for the first while, maybe. And I think i may be over-exaggerating that in order not to under-estimate it, if you know what I mean..?
So that’s twelve times, tops. And as for choking, I can only remember once with a damned apple but my beloved says he thinks it happened twice. In any case a slap on the back sorted her out without resort to any more complex resus techniques. I don’t remember her ever looking scared while she was gagging, whereas the image of her trying and failing to get the blinking apple up will forever be etched on my memory… hence my personal ‘no raw apple until she’s old enough to hold the whole thing’ rule. Imagine my surprise when it turned out she could do that at nine months…
I think it might be interesting to compare experiences, as ‘fear of gagging/choking’ is the most oft-quoted reason not to do BLW.
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My son (7.5 months) has gagged and vomited at least 6 times today while eating toast, cheese, pear and banana. I find it pretty stressful and am questioning the wisdom of BLW as a consequence, especially as he throws up everything he has just eaten and some of the previous milk feed. He’s not a ‘sicky’ baby having only probably thrown up about 6 times in his life before starting BLW.
sure, i can see your thinking there, especially if he’s throwing up everything he’s eaten. has he been doing this since 6 months?
This is my fear too! My daughter, 6 months old and new to this whole thing, has only successfully gotten 2 chunks of food (avocado and banana) in her mouth and she gagged, then vomited BOTH times. Needless to say, my hubs is not really digging this, and I REALLY want it to work out, but I’m terrified to have her eat now. I am scared I won’t get her out of her high chair in time if she DOES choke!
It’s interesting, though, that your fear of choking has actually led you to give what are actually rather gaggy foods, avocado and banana. Both super-soft, both apt to break up and mush up and both hard to manipulate (you try it… :D). What i tend to recommend are steamed carrot sticks or broccoli ‘trees’, roasted sweet potato, things like that. Soft to the point that they’re easy to smush between thumb and forefinger, but they’re not falling apart. Or toast, or even salt-free rice cakes. What about giving those a try? If the baby can’t get them to her mouth this week, she will next week, there’s no rush.
The vomiting, by the way, seems to be a v clever safety mechanism, mine did it too (with bloomin banana, of course). It’s one surefire way to blast an obstruction out, perhaps?
My baby (8 months) gags on her own hand, shoving it in her mouth too far, a lot more often than she has ever gagged on food! Definitely less than once a week. She’s never choked.
Jacob gagged for most meals, which made me really stressed. Twice he threw up so forcefully after a gag, that I decided to stop the majority of finger foods. He now eats his meals with a spoon.
I do a mixture between the two, but just giving Jacob things to eat meant he wasn’t actually eating much and as a result woke up more at night.
See, that sounds perfectly sensible to me. I must get the comments that were on the original blog post ported across (you can probably tell that we are in a state of flux on this new site) but the vast majority of those were saying that their babies didn’t gag a great deal, some not at all. My second child never gagged once, for example. She was an outlier, clearly, just as children who gag a lot are outliers, and so as parents we respond to our child as individuals, not according to a ‘method’ or ‘guru’. Plus, you know, you have to keep yourself sane, and if something in our parenting is stressful but can be avoided then it always seems to me a bit nuts to persevere.
Agree with Aitch that some kids are gaggy and some aren’t. FWIW The gaggiest child I knew was puree fed and her poor Mum had to slowly increase the solid content of her food until she would eat real food. So I don’t think it is related to how you wean, it just becomes apparent earlier in BLW babies.
My girl gagged on finger food quite a bit (every second mouthful) from 6 months. She didn’t vomit very often but gagged very loudly and dramatically. I found it very stressful. I think she tried to swallow everything. She didn’t seem to push things out of her mouth that were too big/hard etc to swallow as I read of other babies doing. I started giving her roughly mashed food. She picked up with her hands and scooped into her mouth (avocado, banana, sweet potato). Then I gradually made it less and less mashed until at 8 months she was on finger foods. Now at 10 months she eats anything and manages it very well indeed without gagging at all.
Definitely the right thing to do, I reckon. She was still in control of what she was eating, how much she was putting in her mouth etc, which is really the key thing in my opinion.
Interesting. Have just come online to search for some wisdom about gaggy babies. My first one took her BLW finger food, looked at it, and started to eat. No problems. Littlie here looks at her finger food, sucks on it excitedly, then gags and gags whenever a bit goes into her mouth. Perhaps we are developing a ‘some babies are gaggier than others’ theory here…!
re the gaggy babies, i suppose it’s self-evident really that some will be gaggier than others, just because the gag reflex moving back is one of those developmental things that can’t be rushed. (actually, it can, but not by babies… generally by adult film stars who train themselves to move that gag reflex right down the throat. blerk). i know of one child who was completely and utterly able to self-feed at 16 weeks, and did, because his mother had two other kids to look after and couldn’t be bothered to remonstrate with him three times a day. he is, of course, fine.
very interesting. we did a combo of blw and purees from the start, as Sare says above, and the amount of vomiting was just unmanageable – like Sarah Lee says, my daughter’s whole feed and whatever else was still in there came straight back up, and then we couldn’t feed her again until she had settled. knocked her whole routine out.
we went back to purees, and now she’s a great eater, mainly purees but now is keen on small baby pastas and rice cakes, toast, pieces of tangerine etc. still quite a lot of gagging but no vomiting. hoping to up her fingerfoods and start giving her her dinner in a more normal state, but a bit nervous about it all…
wondering where i should start? pasta bolognese is her favourite, am thinking i should try this with adult pasta, as i know she’ll want to get it into herself!
pasta-wise, they seem to be able to manage fusilli best of all, so i would do that with some blog and parmesan.
i think the best thing about BLW is that first and foremost it is BABY-led. it leaves the path for how not to freak out about food very wide, imo, rather than dictating ‘you must do this’. (or at least that’s very much how i read it.) i am too old and too ugly to be patronised by someone telling me exactly what to do with MY child… ;-D
With the fusilli pasta, is this not a choking hazard as it is round?
Fusilli are the spirals, are you maybe thinking of shells? My kids were a bit gaggy with shells, but some people I know used the giant shells and their kids loved them. It’s all very dependent on the child, really.
I can’t remember Roo gagging ever (20 months now)…but never say never!
I am new to BLW and started my 5 month old on it as most of the information I had seen mentions that they should not swallow at this age they will only be exploring the foods texture and taste before spitting it out.
I gave him a carrot stick that was very soft which was about 2 inches long so that it had enough of a handle to it. After sucking on one end for a while he proceeded to swallow the whole thing which made him gag and choke for a bit. It freaked me out so i decided to give him baby porridge mixed with strawberry puree on a spoon. Thankfully he wants to grab the spoon from me and put it in hos mouth rather than me sppon feed him
What did you feel was the critical point, there, where the gag became a choke? They are very different things, one characterised by an absence of sound, the baby changing colour and eyes looking panicked etc, whereas a gag is a noisy affair where they work something out of the back of their mouths using their gag reflex. They don’t tend to happen one after the other, as I understand it. Did you do an infant resus course, what did they say?
Ditto to Aitch – the most important thing I think is that it’s baby-led. Some kiddos gag more than others, some prefer finger foods, some prefer food from a spoon. What I love about BLW is that my LO was chilled out about food and stopped when he was full, and I didn’t have to worry about ‘just one more spoonful’. He gagged a few times when he was small (mostly from having eyes bigger than his stomach) but would just flob out the food and then try to eat it again . He never choked, but I would strongly suggest an infant resus/paediatritc 1st aid course if you’re worried about what to do if your LO choked.
Hi! We have the same problem here. He even gags on milk while bf. He puked after banana and cauliflower and then my husband said is too stressful…so I started to mash things… but now he wouldn’t eat. He just smears with hand and doesnt put anything in his mouth. On the other hand he loves fingerfood goes straight to biting and sucking.
Any suggestions?
hi banana, how old is he? do you feel like he is up for eating otherwise but just can’t get it to stay down?
Here’s my opinion on “the gagging thing”, which of course is gospel and should be treated like law ;D
I’ll be honest and admit right up front that I’m a bit of a hardcore BLWer. We had no spoon-feeding, no loaded spoons etc until Isabel (‘DD’; she’s 15 months old now) was capable of feeding herself with them. This meant that right from the off it was self-feeding or nothing (even yoghurts). It’s not through any pretentious belief that BLWing is superior, just (like all my other parenting decisions) out of pure laziness.
Roughly day 3 of our little BLWing adventure, Isabel gagged. And I don’t just mean cough cough there there, everything will be OK … I’m talking full on-face purple-barking like a seal-spewing up what looked like 2 litres of breast milk and a chunk of broccoli-gagging.
Nothing quite prepares you, I guess. Nothing quite prepares you for the moment they reach down, pick the chunks out of the fresh pool of vomit and put it back into their mouth. Retch.
Did I take a vow never to give my daughter finger food ever again? Did I assume that BLW is a flawed method, only taken on by neglectful hippies who have nothing better to do than sit around while their precious babies spend 3 hours chasing the same damned pea around a plate? (Cough.) Did I, like some of my peers, bow down to the great God food processor? None of the above. I wiped my daughter’s face and went back to my lovingly home-prepared meal.
How can you be so blasé, I hear you cry? Well, I approach weaning like this: they all have to start somewhere, and will all end up at the same point in the end. Why mess about trying to avoid the inevitable?
If your kid pisses on your parquet floor while you’re potty training, you don’t put the potty away and vow to keep them in nappies until they go to college. There has to be an interim state of “OK, this is the bad shit, but it’s worth it in the end”. IMO the gagging is exactly that. Instead of running to the mouli, you have two options:
(The one I took) Play it by ear. Carry on giving finger foods. Try different textures – crunchy apple, soft boiled courgette etc to see if one thing works better than another. Remember the oft-quoted “food before one is just for fun” (which doesn’t rhyme btw, they lied to me) and take your time. You’re not part of some great bloody weaning race.
Stop the solids for a few days and try again. Yes, that’s right. No solid food. Don’t worry, your little one won’t die. They’ve got to 6(ish) months on just breast/formula milk, it’s not going to suddenly become inadequate overnight (despite what a certain misguided opinion piece would have you believe, grumble grumble.)
Yep, that’s it. That’s the “what do do if your baby gags” non-purée option list. No point trying to beat the gag reflex, it’s there for a reason.
Thanks for your advice – just had my first gagging experience 4 days into BLW and a full bottle of milk came up with the offending item. Will take your advice and avoid that particular food (rice cake) for a while and stick with the steamed veg which was going quite well.
but in a way, as revolting as it is to clean up, isn’t that so clever? body thinks ‘hmm, is this stuck?’ and then takes care of the question by basically hosing down the offending object with milk and sluicing it out? impressive, i think. and GROSS. ;D
hey, J is 6 months and 1 week. I think he is ready; sits almost with no support, grabs things and puts them in mouth… and he really likes chewing on his food…just has “big” gag reflex. When he was younger he throw up milk a lot and it became better after 5 month.
I would like to be like you – relaxed, but I just can not. It is so unlike me, as I am so relaxed when he licks floor or pees on it…
I hope I will become more relaxed :))
it will happen, don’t worry. look, any parent seeing their kid gagging definitely needs to stop and be aware of what’s going on, that’s for sure, it’s really just how they transmit that to the baby is the thing. look calm, make happy chewing faces, and proceed.
regarding the gag reflex… it is a good thing, designed to prevent them from choking, remember. like jem said in her excellent post, it’s there for a reason.
it moves over time, this we know, and indeed even in adults it can be trained to move even further down the throat. (close your eyes NOW if you are easily offended, but how do you think adult film stars manage? ;-D they TRAIN that gag reflex down as far as their toes, that’s how.)
so it sounds like it’s just a waiting game for you, banana, at this stage. you will get more relaxed about it, but let’s face it, it is gross when they vom so it’s hardly something you can just be totally chilled about, that’s asking a bit much from yourself, don’t you think? ;-D
Okay, I get gagging, I’m on baby #6. But she chokes, a lot. Eyes bugging out, no sounds, color changing, hands fly out, choking. Needs to be snatched up, flipped over, back whacked, and then sometimes still finger-sweeped before a pathetic cry and normal breathing resume, with red eyes and pounding heart. She’s nearly 8 months now, and I have start-stopped-started semi-solids for 2 months… she loves to grab and stuff in her mouth, but then sucks and swallows- HOW do I get her to CHEW? She does have teeth, but apparently they are just there for biting me while nursing ;) and obviously, her gums would still be enough for what I’ve been giving her. She has choked on banana, bread, and over-ripe fruit dices. She is allergic to cow milk products, so yogurt is out. I’m not worried about her nutrients since she nurses well, but I do want her to have enough learning experience to learn not to choke!
hey, maybe baby led weaning just isn’t for everyone. Maybe she won’t be ready for a little while yet. *shrugs* better safe than sorry!
May be a ridiculous idea, but is it possible that a few sharp long teeth actually PREVENT some babies from chewing with their gums adequately?
Oh dear, the thing is that they do all sound quite gaggy/chokey foods… some kids are great with banana, some not so much. my two found soft things more difficult than hard, weirdly, and i always toasted bread or kept it to crusts while they were learning, as it has a real tendency to get claggy and stuck in the roof of the mouth.
what about sticking to hard things for the moment? Good, solid sticks of cucumber or carrot, nice big hunks of meat to chew on or suck on? does she chew other things? i seem to remember we sucked and chewed our way through a lot of oatcakes…
My little tiger cub is a big-time gagger, at least once per meal. It doesn’t really matter what it is, just once he has explored the food a bit he gets excited and shoves as much as possible into his mouth. He even takes to storing bits in his cheeks and then grabbing more to shove in. Inevitably he gags on something, but he always works it out (raw apple was a challenge but he even managed that).
Now it maybe that this is just his temperament; he got the nickname Tiger cub because of how he nursed, more a ravenous little tiger cub then a gentle lamb. I just wondered if any other parents had trouble with this, and did their little ones eventually work out what a bite size should be? I don’t ever withhold food, usually just place a small selection in front of him and keep it coming until he starts throwing most of it on the floor. i do wish he would stop as it is challenging to keep a calm face on sometimes.
how funny of him, and how clever to get his head round raw apple, i kept my two away from that for as long as possible. re the stuffing of the face, i guess all you can do is limit the amount of food in front of him at any one time. at least he’s got a cracking nickname out of it, though.
Mine sounds the same – the pieces that come out the other end are pea-sizish, but the ones coming out where they went in are definitely chokeable. I only tried a few days of BLW at 6 months before baking off and giving more soft stringy items to try as finger food, alongside chunky mashes (self spoon-fed). Any finger foods (even pea-sized) cause at least 1 gag per meal, and maybe 1 / 4 mash meals cause a gag. Foods where he can bite a big piece off cause scarier gags than I can take, so laying off those for a while, maybe retest periodically.
My daughter was never a sicky baby, but she does gag when she eats. We started with BLW at 5 months or so, when we couldn’t stop her grabbing our plates or looking balefully at us while we ate.
She’s now 9 1/2 months and eats everything we eat – including curry (Indian and Thai) and strong flavours such as capers. Her very favourite thing was Broccoli when she was still on the steamed veggie & soft fruit early stage, until she discovered ripe nectarines in Australia in summer and would basically clap half a nectarine on to her face and suck/chew until it was a few bits of tattered skin. That was around 6 1/2 months.
At the moment her favourite thing is filled pasta with whatever sauce I make(tortelloni etc).
So the gagging thing – she certainly does it, probably once every couple of days. Usually it’s because she’s stuffed too much into her mouth at once and can’t chew it or swallow it. Often it’s about 10 pieces of clementine which emerge. She doesn’t gag to vomiting, ever, thank God!
She has choked a couple of times, which is scary but she seems less worried by it than we are. And sometimes something small goes down the wrong way, like a few crumbs of oat- or rice cake. Often she coughs after drinking water.
I’ve found that if she over-fills her mouth, we can get her to swallow some of it by giving her a drink to wash it down (helpful with gluggy food like bread or rice).
She has also always had a habit of “pocketing” bits of food for later – sometimes much, much later – in her cheeks.
She also loves a whole apple, and can eat a fair bit just with her two bottom teeth (over several hours).
I did BLW with my daughter 3 years ago and she never gagged or choked. She started grabbing food at about 5 months and I started giving her “meals” at 6 months. She took to BLW amazingly and it was a really fun (if messy) stage of her development.
My son is 5 1/2 months and is definitely interested in food and has started grabbing, although seems to gag on everything and bring up his last milk feed. So far he hasn’t been distressed by the gagging or vomitting, but does seem quite frustrated by the whole process. I’m trying to hold out for 6 months before starting with meals, and honestly can’t see myself pureeing anything.
Hi
I am glad to read so many people are feeling like me. I wanted to do BLW but have been scared to death today by her gagging not just once or twice but rather alot during one sitting. Also our local centre encourages BLW but also provides chocking handouts that state that you should cut childrens food up into smal pieces because they can choke and some children die. Great am considering that I will be breastfeeding her at the age of 18!!!Need more encouragement.
Right with you, Learner! Apparently just 2.5 years later. Our 6.5mo daughter seems to love our food much more than purees, but I am so afraid of gagging and choking. However, she at least appears to be a mild gagger, and while she’s gagged while nursing, has never vomited. We are planning on trying soft carrots tonight. Fingers crossed.
Each child is different.
My first daughter was a gagger, she used to gag on my nipple while I was breastfeeding her. Even now, at the age of 2.5, she still sometimes gags when she’s upset, crying…I did BLW with her, but it was not easy, she gagged all the time, frequently puked. However, the gagging was happening with pureed food as well, so we just had to get through it. When she was about 11 months old, everything changed and she started eating everything and gagging disappeared.
My younger daughter is now 10 months old and she does not gag at all. I can’t believe it, what a difference.
My DD is a few days off 6 months so decided to try the BLW. I gave her some apple and carrot. She scared the life out of me with the apple as she, I think, choked as opposed to gagged. Eyes popping and very red faced followed by mucusy vomit. I grabbed her out of her highchair ready to thwack her on the back. She seemed ok but has left me worried. So here I am desperately looking for reassurance this is normal and I can relax and give it another go. I am concerned though that it will put my DD off food if she keeps choking.
oh you poor thing, it sounds frightening. i would steer clear of apple, personally, it’s a hard little lump to shift if it gets too far back in their mouths, as you learned they need to bring out the big mucousy vom guns to shift it. i used to steam carrot sticks to the point where they would squish quite easily between my thumb and finger, and both of mine also liked sucking on cucumber. rice cakes are also good in those early days, while everyone is getting to grips with it all. would post more but am on deadline so will dash off now. hope you feel better, it is normal, she did everything fine, and tbh if you steer clear of apple that’s probably the worst you’ll ever see. the positive is that she dealt with is, the negative is that it scared the living daylights out of you…
It’s scary but it sounds like he handled it beautifully and you were ready in case. I would recommend starting with foods that are soft enough to crush with your Tongue against your palate. If you want offer apple and carrot, steam them. Raw apple is a bit choketastic because little bits break off. My first had his only near choke with apple that my mil gave him. B is 9 months and eats v well and I offer apple whole so he has to grate bits off and suck on it. Roasted butternut squash or sweet potato wedges are great, toast fingers with cream cheese/ hummus/… Or what ever you are having for dinner. The top tips on here are v useful and the forum is full of advice. :)
How did you serve the apple and carrot Scarlett’s mum? Raw apple can be very chokey, it’s much better (and yummier)fried in butter and cinnamon until soft, or you can steam/microwave it but that’s boring! Carrots are lovely roasted until they’re lovely and squishy on the inside. First foods should be able to be squashed against the roof of your mouth with your tongue. Gagging followed by vomiting is not uncommon (although not pleasant to watch, I’m sure!) It will get better as Scarlett learns to control her food, and her gag reflex moves further back in her mouth.
Thank you ladies for your advice and support. I will avoid the apple or cook in butter and cinnamon as toothfairy suggested (sounds scrummy) Today she has been sucking away on strawberries and avacado – she loved it. Was wondering should I just give her 1 meal a day or can I go straight into breakfast lunch and dinner – what did you guys do? Thanks x
Hi Ladies, I have started BLW with my lil girl who is 6 1/2 months. My son is 5 and still gags on food and has alot of issues with food. At first i was really freaking out every time esme gagged but i made myself chill out and now more often then not, she gags and the bits come up, she chews and it goes down. She is certainly learning what to do and is gagging less. The one thing that makes her not only gag but vomit is banana and no matter how i give it to her she is sick.
I don’t mind mess and never have, that said i do find with BLW that bibs are pointless and she needs bathing after meal times…..she rubs in in her hair, her ears, i find it EVERYWHERE. Any tips on protecting clothes a bit better? Also she refuses any food from a spoon now.
Lettie
To start with I would just offer her a nibble whenever you’re eating something suitable, and don’t worry if she doesn’t go for it. The beauty of being baby-led is you can’t push her too fast – if she’s not ready to eat at a particular moment she just won’t be interested.
You might find her appetite is very different from day to day and week to week, sometimes a gannet and sometimes not bothered. It’s normal :)
Thanks Eleanor, so far today she has eaten everytime I have put something in front of her. Not thats she eats much as I find it all hidden down her bib and in the seat of her highchair. Its so funny – theres me thinking WOW she eaten all that pasta and then when i pick her up there it all is :) Its great to see her so enthusiastic though and it keeps her amused for ages!!
Hi – I too was wondering about how and when to introduce meals. Our twin girls are just over 6 months and we have been feeding them for about 3 or 4 weeks now. Things like rice cakes, melon, pitabread, brocolli, mash potato with brocolli on a spoon. We have tried them on cheese and that has gone well as they kind of melt it down in the mouth, tho a wee bit vomit comes up now and then which is really smelly – to be expected tho!!
We are now giving them something to eat after their 11am and 3pm bottle – they are fed 4hrly. But I was wondering about maybe some porridge in the morning. And how do we get them on to a ‘tea time’ routine?
I’m wary about offering too much too soon!!
Also – what about things like fish etc? Is anything out of bounds at this stage (apart from the obvious peanuts, honey…). And is yoghurt ok?
Tried to order the book from Amazon but its on a 2 wk delivery time!! Tsk tsk!
Thanks folks.
Hi Lettielou, i use a bib that has long sleeves and fixes around the back a bit like a hospital night gown. it works really well. she may get the odd bit of good under her neck but apart from that I can generally take off the bib and shes as good as new. i must admit she hasnt yet got into rubbing things in her hair or ears – yet!! My Mum got the bib for me from M&Co. Of course the other option with the better weather is to strip them off and put them in the garden in the highchair – no worries then about the mess. good luck
just to add my experience, my little one is 7 months, and is extremely gaggy. She regularly vomited until she was over 3 months. Whenever the doctor has looked in her mouth with a spatular, they always remark that she has a high gag reflex [she has a high palate and also had posterior tongue tie that was snipped, they may all be related].
So the BLW is coming on very slowly, I don’t think more than a few blips have actually gone down. She loves sucking on cucumber, raw carrot, ricecakes although she shudders and gags if a bit breaks off, and has vomited the bit up a few times. Any cooked foods such as batons of carrot, butternut squash, potato, broccoli etc are spat out or gagged on.
I’ve tried mashing foods which have had the same effect [shudder, gag, spit]. she takes the spoon enthusiastically and shoves it in and chews, but the novelty soon wears off.
I think the most successful in terms of actually going down so far has been frozen yogurt and mashed banana.
I think I’ll try some commercial puree just to see what she makes of it. I’m not getting stressed by it so far, we just try a little of something each day and let her suck something raw and hard when we eat. I’m veggie so not sure how I feel about giving her meat to suck.
good luck everyone!
brilliant attitude, Donna, just perfect. and so interesting about the high palate, thanks for posting that.
We introduced finger food at around 6 months, for the first week or two Olivia seemed to love it – just more stuff to chew and suck on then she started getting some in and she was gagging several times every meal and throwing up at least once per meal. She never choked. Because she was gagging so much we thought that we would introduce some purees at about 7 months – but she absolutely refused to let us spoon any into her mouth (independent little critter) so I would pre-load the spoon and offer it to her – she would get a little bit in but would still quite often gag and throw it up and she at least seemed a little more interested in the solid foods – at 10 months now she never seems to gag but is still only eating a tiny little bit and only occasionally – she will quite often just pick up the food in her hand to see what the texture is and then just put it down and not bring it anywhere near her mouth… (anything that is not food goes straight to the mouth by the way). We seem to have a little luck with things like lamb cutlets and broccoli florets and pees – but its really not consistent, and we are really lucky if she gets more that one mouthful in. I am still breastfeeding on demand, I tried reducing her feeds during the day to encourage her to eat – but that only resulted in her wanting more milk during the night. Should I be concerned?
I should mention that she doesn’t seem to like to touch anything slimy or squishy lol.
Just come back (I commented way above, in February, re: my youngest who gagged and gagged constantly) to spread some hope.
She stopped gagging! Very suddenly, a propos of nothing at all. One day she was gagging nearly constantly, and the next day she just started eating stuff. Inexplicable, but brilliant.
We did BLW by complete accident with my first (she’s almost 6 now). Per our pediatrician’s recommendation, we started her on purees at 6 months old. Other than the very first exposure where she ate the entire container of squashed peas and then promptly threw up the entire green mess at the dining table on a cruise ship, she would never, ever eat more than a single bite of any pureed food. I wasted an awful lot of baby food. A month later she very, very clearly wanted some of my bowl of chili (and I make it spicy) and I decided to offer her some with a back up plan of breastmilk if she found it too spicy. Quite the contrary she loved it and ate most of my bowl other than the beans. From then on, she ate whatever we ate. She would eat nothing at all squished and refused to let us feed her, so I chopped everything into small pieces and let her feed herself. Since we were also breastfeeding, I wasn’t concerned about her nutritional needs (since honestly, they get very little from food until they are close to a year anyway). However, she simply would not tolerate anything of a squishy texture at all. No yogurt, no applesauce, no ice cream, no pudding. She wouldn’t touch a banana and would gag on the texture when I tried to sneak it in. This lasted until she was 3… when she saw a monkey at the zoo eating a banana and was willing to try one and loved it. Same with the applesauce, but before 3, no way. We had several visits with doctors where we discussed her food aversions and hit upon a fantastic one who said that there was a huge increase in food aversions in children when they pushed the solid food starting time recommendation from 4 months to 6 months. On his recommendation and the recommendation from another pediatrician, we started our twins on solid tastes at 4 months. At that age, they get absolutely no nutritional value from the food because of the immaturity of the digestive tract, and we offered no more than a spoonful per day after they had breastfed, but they tried a wide range of foods (all very squishy/pureed). By six months when we were ready to do solids, it was by necessity that we did chopped pieces rather than purees because they were impatient and very independent and wanted to feed themselves and I found purees too messy, so we went right along with feeding them exactly what the family ate, cut into small enough pieces that they wouldn’t choke. They didn’t have teeth until close to a year, but gums are incredibly effective at mashing food. They have had no food aversions, will eat literally anything and have never once gagged on a food. My older daughter would only gag out of dislike at texture. I have a 9 week old baby… still exclusively breastfed, but we will likely do a similar situation as with our twins… tastes before feeding for nutrition and self feeding to foster independence. It works for us… and I’m astonished to find that there is a name for it, let alone a website and a book.
apart from the bit about starting at 4 months, yes. glad you are happy with your decisions.
My daughter is almost 8 mo, and we started blw a few weeks ago (she was a month early, I was nervous which is why we waited, but she eventually really started grabbing food so I knew she was ready even if I wasn’t!). She gagged and spit up the first two days, a great big pool that just sat in her lap, but has only had mild gagging since (fingers crossed!). She has had avocado (alone and on bread), sweet and regular potato, chicken, turkey, steak, broccoli, carrots, rice, banana, lettuce, tangerine, apple, and persimmon. The meats, broccoli, and persimmon were huge hits!
Perhaps have a careful think about the sorts of foods you’re allowing your baby to grab – raw apple? carrot? You have a duty of care to your baby. You wouldn’t allow them to put a known non-food choking hazard in their mouth (eg. a bead) but you’d allow a choking food item? Babies aren’t old enough to be able to protect their own welfare – there is a reason babies have parents. Their life is in your hands. Think carefully.
sorry, who is that directed towards, concerned? how are you defining ‘choking food item’? something small? large? cooked? raw? do you mean ‘non-pureed’?
No, I don’t mean non-pureed – my babies had endless finger foods. Don’t have an issue with baby taking charge. Not directed at anyone in particular, just a safety issue in general.
Sure, BLW is a great concept and babies have been doing this since basically time began – but alot of babies also used to die before reaching childhood too. Just saying, play it safe for baby’s sake and think about what you’ve got available to be going in that mouth.
What constitutes a choking hazard is complex. ‘More Peas Please’ (no, I have nothing to do with the book and am not promoting it) has guidelines about what constitutes a choking hazard based on research that included results of autopsies conducted on babies and young children who choked to death. It talks about the size of foods but also their consistency. I’m all for weaning being initiated by baby – but also for a bit of caution from parents so that their babies live to see childhood.
Also spare a thought for the paramedics, nurses and doctors who see and have to deal with the results of babies choking – not every story ends happily.
Honestly, though, I think this is a bit of scaremongering on your part. Have you spoken to paramedics, nurses and doctors about this? I have. I pretty much ask every single one I meet about their experiences with choking, and quite sincerely have not heard a horror story yet. My personal experience, of course, so it may be that your experience is different.
I number amongst my close personal friends and family members three paramedics and one A&E paed consultant, believe me I’ve asked them about childhood chokes but they just don’t have that much to say on the matter… indeed, the paed consult and one of the paramedics were sufficiently interested in what I was saying to BLW their own kids.
Risk isn’t a specialist area of mine but it seems to me that risk assessment that is on babies who choked to death cannot simply take into account the size of food they were eating at the time (and I would query were these also food items in every instance?), it must take into account whether the child was left alone, whether it was sitting up or harnessed incorrectly, what age it was and whether the parent or caregiver was capable of dealing with a resus situation. The size of the food item simply cannot be the only risk factor. Also, I would be interested in knowing the relative risk of fatal choking versus fatal-anything-else at the same age, so that I can weigh up which is more dangerous, letting them on a swing or letting them eat a bit of steamed carrot.
I would also need to know the historical infant mortality stats on choking to back up your ‘a lot of babies used to die before reaching childhood too’ and investigate them thoroughly before taking your analysis on board. Were the infant morbidity rates ascribed to choking? More likely cholera, malnutrition, fever, I’d have thought. And even if they were, the data is corrupted by lack of medical knowledge in any case, for example, teething used to be thought to be the attributable cause of infant death in 7.3% of deaths in kids age 1-3 in London, which would be rubbished now;“By 1839, 5016 deaths in England and Wales were attributed to teething. The English Registrar-General report on teething of 1842 discussed infant mortality: 4.8% of all infants who died in London under the age of 1, 7.3% of those between the ages of 1 and 3 and 12% of all deaths under four years were directly attributed to teething.” http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v191/n1/full/4801078a.html
I’m all for vigilance, I’m all for preparation and understanding, but I’m just finding what you are saying a bit vague, I guess. Is it that you want to tell us what ‘Peas Please’ actually advises? That might be useful, so that we can actually see if we are contradicting what it says.
“alot of babies also used to die before reaching childhood too. ”
I know for a fact that there was a sharp decline in choking related deaths post-1970s after doctors started advising parents to delay weaning til after 3 months. Unless you know of many < 12 week old infants sitting up chewing on chunks of broccoli etc, sounds to me like pureé, not raw carrot, would have been a big factor there?
‘More Peas Please’ advocates a pureé-based route into weaning and grossly exaggerates early weaning problems to play on parental fears of fussy/non-eating babies.
So errr.. unless you're suggesting that all BLWing parents are irresponsible idiots who feed infants chunks of raw carrot, which you would surely not presume, I'm not sure I see your point 'concerned'?
I don’t think anyone would advocate raw apple or carrot as a first food. BLW guidelines state the softness of first foods should be such that the food item can be mushed by the tongue against the roof of your mouth.
Personally I would be much more concerned about spoon feeding lumpy purees into a baby’s mouth.
I don’t think your post is helpful – concerned.
We are talking about eating food whilst under supervision – your bead analogy doesn’t work here as that scenario would arise (I surmise) when a child finds a bead whilst unsupervised.
The only choking I have directly experienced was with a much older child who was eating whilst running. Enough said.
With small babies, seated comfortably and securely, when food is given under supervision, the baby is in control and the protective tongue thrust is not being over-ridden – the risk of choking is minimal in my opinion.
But then again, I think that every parent should take an infant resuc course before embarking on the introduction of food by any method.
Most definitely, Lin. The only time i’ve ever had to do anything like a proper resus thing was on a stranger’s child in teh park. he’d eaten something, i didn’t really get to see before his mother arrived. and he was a child, not a baby.
If you’re following guidelines and steaming things till soft – great. My concern is those parents who claim they are using ‘baby led weaning’ and then, without researching the concept properly, just giving the baby whatever happens to be about wherever they are – yes, including raw carrot and apple. Had a purple, not-breathing baby at mother’s group the other day due to carrot. Paramedics needed, etc. I’m just saying, if you’re using BLW, also use caution and follow the guidelines. Caution, that’s all.
On reconsidering and re-reading everyone’s points, think you could be right and I may be just being overly paranoid. Please feel free to delete my above comments.
I’ve sent you an email, concerned, replying to your one asking me to delete all your comments. I will do it if you feel terribly, terribly strongly about it and it’s upsetting you, but in truth i’d rather not.
you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve raised your point politely, and no doubt if you’d just seen a child choke you will have been shaken. clearly your heart is in the right place, it may just be that we were talking at cross purposes re how BLW should be done vs what you had observed and of course we would always advocate using caution and following the guidelines, totally agree there.
I’m curious to know what age the baby was that choked, was he or she really able to bite off a bit of raw carrot at 6 months? that’s some going… mind you i didn’t even like my daughter’s nursery leaving carrot out for them to snack on at will when she was 2… fine for lunch when completely supervised but no, i wasn’t fond of the idea of a child wandering around the playpark with a bit of carrot in her hand, not after the incident i’d observed.
Hi. I´ve been trying blw and pureed food but my baby gags on everything!Since he was 7 months until now (11 months) he has gagged on everything other than breast milk. Recently he has been more interested in the blw but every time he gets the tiniest bit on his tongue (grain of rice or smaller) he gags until he vomits. He does this with almost anything. He is much more inclined to keep putting food in his mouth now…something which he didnt´do before at all…but still gags and vomits. I´m not sure where to go from here….
Oh that sounds like a real pain in the neck. What about if you give him a toy to chew on and it goes into his mouth, does he gag then?
Funnily enough it´s only with food! From the first day we tried to introduce him to solids he just wasn´t interested…It was like the texture disgusted him even if he just touched it!
Some babies are just extra-sensitive to texture, the poor wee thing. And poor you, with all the vomming.
Let’s get this straight, then…
If you feed him puree/yog, he gags.
If he feeds himself, does the same thing happen?
or is it that he doesn’t bother putting it in his mouth?
Does he have teeth? what happened when he was teething, was he more chewy then?
hi again. Yes it´s the same if he feeds himself…He´s happy to put the food in his mouth but if a tiny little bit is on his tongue after he bites it off it makes him gag and vomit. If he doesn´t gag he sits for a verrrrry long time with his tongue hanging out and his mouth wide open……as if he is waiting for the food to walk back out! He has 4 teeth now and was the same before the teeth as well. He has never actually “gummed” food. It´s almost like the action of chewing doesn´t come naturally. I´m not sure what to try now.
Hi all,
I’m all for BLW and am so pleased I found out about it in time to wean my first DD. On the topic of gagging, I’ve never been worried about the gagging/choking business since they show how capable they are from day one. I’m just interested to know, don’t spoonfed babies gag just as much as the BLWers, especially as many parents are fooled into starting their pureed weaning at 4 months thanks to the packaging rules in the UK?
Well it’s a relief to know that its not just my baby that spews and gags!! I have now started leaving a 2 hour gap between his milk feed and solids, I did also try him with rice cereal and a puree (pre-loaded on a spoon)…just to see what happened, he stuck the spoon straight into his mouth, which was very impressive, still did the gagging thing, but no spew. He sucks on whole apples and pears, and sticks of cucumber have always been OK. Actually reading all the above posts I now remember that he used to stick his whole fist in his mouth and gag on that, which he doesn’t do any more, so one day I guess he will stop gagging on food. I don’t really like giving him rice cereal or puree (have you tried them???? They’re gross!!) so am going to turf the packets in the bin and stick with fingers of toast etc. My childhealth nurse recommends BLW by the way, but I can never get in touch with her for help, the posts here have been hugely helpful, thanks!
Thank goodness I found this, I thought I was just failing at BLW! My son 6.5 months gags fairly regularly, and mostly copes really well. However he had one incident of choking on sweet potato that really scared me, but in hindsight I am not sure I had steamed it enough. Since then I have just taken it slowly but lately he has started shoving things so far into his mouth he gags immediately. I find I have to help him to hold the food (I hold, he grabs the food and my hand with his hands and directs to his mouth and chews/sucks)so that he doesn’t shove the whole thing into his mouth.
But when out and about one day this week I gave him a puree and as long as he can hold and direct the spoon, he can’t get enough! Absolutely loves it. I have started doing some porridge for breakfast followed by some BLW fruit and then a mash/puree for lunch or dinner followed by some bigger pieces of fruit/veg to play with and suck (sometimes still with my help as he is still shovelling it in there). He seems to enjoy that and gets less frustrated as there is some food in his tummy. He is still breastfed on demand and certainly hasn’t dropped any feeds (2-3 hourly at night still – sigh!).
Will he still get the benefits of BLW doing this mixed up with mash and puree version? I was feeling a bit like I was copping out, but it seems to be working?
Personally I think BLW is a headspace, i really do. it seems to me it’s more important that everyone is happy and comfortable than following one method to the letter (i mean, how dense is that, if the kid is enjoying something?). plus, we do use spoons, we do eat liquidised soup etc, this is normal human stuff. so long as (i think, you may think differently) you keep in mind that he is in the driving seat, and don’t fall into the trap of encouraging him to eat the whole bowl etc, what’s not to like?
You all need to look into sensory processing disorder… Particularly, tactile defensiveness. Gagging is classic textbook response.
Rachael – Sensory Processing Disorder is a neurological disorder which causes difficulties in processing and responding to information! It shares many features of autism spectrum disorder. On this forum we are discussing the normal gag reflex of babies during weaning. I think you may be confused?
I’ve just started giving my son little bits of finger food, he just plays with them and seems to love being able to put items in his mouth that aren’t made of plastic! worried to death about choking and he does gag and upset himself sometimes but I’m with him all the time and he does seem to either spit big lumps out or mush them with his tongue, had to finger sweep a piece of pear out the other day tho! To Jane, I’m trying mixing with mash/puree cos he gagged so much on any texture at first, find this works for us and he’s become much more independent, they’re all so different and surprise us, plus I’m sure half the time my little monkey gags on stuff cos he just doesn’t like or want it!
I’m so glad I’ve found this site! My baby boy is almost 7 months old. We started solids just before he turned 6 months with some mashed banana with breast milk. I was spoon feeding him/feeding him with my fingers, also allowing him to touch the food. It was quite successful as I think he was just so curious about the new taste and sensation. We moved on to mashed avocado with breast milk, pureed apple, mashed egg yolk with breast milk and pureed butternut squash. By the time we got to butternut squash, he just seemed to be less interested in eating, I thought he just wasn’t interested in the food choice. Then he would get restless in his high chair and I thought he just hated being strapped down.
But then after discussing foods at my parent group meetings, I heard about BLW. I had heard about it before but really didn’t know anything about it. After reading up on it (have yet to read the actual book) I thought I’d give it a try. So for the past three days I’ve put some pieces of avocado on his high chair tray and let him do as he pleases, it starts out with a lot of pushing the food around but then he does bring the food to his mouth (which brought tears to my eyes when he first did it!). Thing is I am SO FREAKED OUT about choking that I make the pieces quite small, and as slippery as avocado is he can’t really pick up any pieces, so I have to help him, but hold out my finger or hand and let him grab my hand and bring it to his mouth. He gags a bit especially with bigger pieces, only one time has he vomited a little bit out with the mucousy stuff, but seems to work it out so I let him do it. I have yet to take a infant first aid class, but know my husband and I just have to.
ANYWAY, my question is really how small should the pieces of food be? I am excited for him to try all kinds of things and I know he’s very interested. My fear is that with his eagerness I’m scared he’ll shovel huge amounts in his mouth. The other day when he barely took a look at the squash puree and offered him some very ripe banana. He grabbed it and took a BIG bite right off it and ended up gagging quite a bit, although he did manage to get it down. But I just don’t think I can watch him do that everyday!
Any advice would be appreciated!
Well, I always think fore-warned is fore-armed, and that an infant resus class is a MUST for all parents, regardless of weaning, but funnily enough the foods that you mention are pretty tricky to hold, and pretty gaggy. what’s he like with a rice cake, or a bit of toast? steamed veggies also good, in my experience, carrot, broccoli, green beans, that sort of thing. some people swear by bananas but mine always found them gaggy. not choky, i hasten to add… but it’s not brilliant fun seeing them gag away i think, so if you can skip it, do so.
my baby gags n also throws up a lot when she sees food and even her milk bottle.. she’s 11 months and i donno what to do anymore.. any reason ??
It sounds soooooo frustrating, Ishy, you poor thing. It does look like some babies just gag more and for longer than others, but I imagine you are just desperate for it to pass. Do you let her self-feed or is she getting food from a spoon?
Do you give liquids with blw? Like do you give your baby water to wash down the food?
It’s not something you’d be doing to let them wash down food per se, they’re fine to swallow it by themselves, but 6 months is around the time most people do start giving water in those sippy cups, or even in open cups if they’re small and if you don’t mind doing a complete change of clothes. ;D
All your comments are so helpful. I’m very new to BLW, just started on Monday when my son turned 6 months. I am also very anxious about choking/gagging. He has gagged and vomited a couple of times already. He also leans into the food, meaning he is no longer sitting up straight in his highchair. He appears to enjoy cucumber, but gagged a lot on avocado & banana. Feel a bit like a rabbit caught in head lights at the moment! Due to this I’m not sure which foods to try next. I have also given toast & unsalted butter a go, which was ok but went soft quickly and then he found it more difficult to handle. I know it’s early days but need some reassurance. Thank you in advance for your support.
Honestly, just hang back on it, there’s no rush. Start again ‘properly’ next week, give yourself a break if it’s making you anxious, and in the meantime give him those kids rice cakes. Totally soft, totally dissolv-y, easy to hold and good for (both of your) confidence. Don’t sweat this, it’s just eating, we all get the hang of it.
Hi all, for those worried about size I find the bigger the chunks the better, that way they can gnaw or bite small chunks and not end up with too much in their mouth. My second child has just started with me holding a cheek of necterine and him gnawing away. He is 4 months, but we started my daughter with now at 6 months and would give her half a cooked carrot, broccoli florets, finger sized pieces of chicken and lamb chops.
If you don’t feel confident you can buy mesh bags with a handle that bub chews and gets the strained food, great for building confidence and for slippery food Luke mango.
Good luck
I came here looking for some encouragement, like many of you. My DD is 7 mo and we’ve been easing into BLW for the past couple of weeks. We have not spoon fed her at all.
She was a very early teether- gor her first tooth at 3 1/2 months. And now she has 6 teeth at 7 mos! So, she doesn’t really suck much of anything, just bites and bites but hasn’t really figured out the whole chewing bit.
She gags HEAPS and HEAPS during every feeding, and vomited sweet potato two nights ago. In the midst of it, I was very frightened but tried to keep a brave face.
I feel so anxious and conflicted. I like the principles of BLW and want to move forward, but I’m scared. If anything happened to her I would never forgive myself. I live in the US, and BLW is not widely accepted here. So I’m getting a lot of concern and criticism from the grandparents who only ever spoon fed and had never heard of BLW before I mentioned it. My husband is really supportive and seems much calmer than I am.
Has anyone else dealt with an early teether and BLW? Help! I feel kind of paralyzed around the whole issue of solids right now, and like all of you, I want what’s best for our sweet girl.
What about if you give her something that’s even harder to bite, I’m wondering? Not rigid, but something like steak, a lovely big chunk of it to chew on and worry at? Mine used to suck and chew at a bit of steak for the longest (and most revolting) time. Or… celery, they can’t really break that down because the ‘strings’? Have you spoken to anyone on the forum http://www.babyledweaning.com/forum about it? Some babies are gaggier than others, that’s for sure, but be fair to her, she’s only just started, a bit of gagging (even heaps) is to be expected. The vomiting happened to us with DD1 a couple of times, but strangely i was very comforted by that as it was so ‘explosive’, if you know what i mean? It seemed to me to be a brilliant safety mechanism, don’t you think? The stuff came firing out of her, as I recall, no choking possible that time.
hi,
my daughter is 9months old and I have been trying to feed her purees for the last 3 months as I have not heard of BLW or led weaning. She barely will eat any of it, gagging on a lot of it, she would eat her apple puree alone or mixed with rice cereal. Anyway, I was thinking trying BLW might be better for her, but not shes gagging on everything, including her cereal that she once loved. I don’t know what to do as I feel like she is getting a lil old for solely depending on her bottle. please help!!
What about giving her some well-steamed carrot or broccoli to try? Have you done that? Don’t despair, some babies just have strong gag reflexes, that’s all, same as some of us have better eyesight than others, I guess.
Please can somebody help me, I’ve been weaning my daughter since she was 5 months and she was fine with purees, loves different flavours but now she is 7 months I thought it would be best to start her with some finger food but she’s not doing very well. She gagged on her first lumpy meal which was shepherds pie, then she has gagged on Weetabix yesterday but was fine with it today and she has just gagged on banana too. The first gag was a proper choke, face red, eyes watering, no sound etc.The others I think were gags but it’s really getting me down and I feel like she’ll be on purees forever. I don’t know how big the pieces of food are supposed to be. A few people have recommended toast but I worry if she isn’t chewing food, will she swallow it whole and choke, also what if she puts a big piece in her mouth. Sorry for all the questions, I’m just not sure what to do as I do think baby led is a good idea but I’ve a huge fear of her choking.
It’s a perfectly, PERFECTLY reasonable fear, of course, have you read up about resus or even better done an infant resus course? If you’ve been using purees for this last while, your baby is accustomed to slurping their food down (much as we do when we’re feeling greedy with soup…) so this is a bit of a switcheroo to pull, because mouthing and chewing before swallowing is a bit different.
That’s why BLW is recommended from 6 months and from the start of weaning, rather than as a mix and match. That said, plenty of babies are fine doing a mix of self-feeding and spoon-feeding, of course, in fact it’s really what most people do, albeit on a different timeline. But keep it simple, give her a chance on easy things, because this is a new skill for her. So, think carrot sticks the size of your pinkie finger, steam them til you can smush them easily between thumb and forefinger. Broccoli florets are great because they’re so easy to hold. Cold cucumber sticks are nice for them to chew on if they have teeth coming, likewise celery, although not much might be eaten. The idea with BLW (although I appreciate that’s not exactly what you’re doing) is that they get the chance to manipulate food in their mouths before then learning to swallow, so things that are unwieldy are pushed out. Perhaps have one finger food meal a day so that you’re not confusing the two skills? And start with the easy stuff for the moment, she’ll come on leaps and bounds. Good Luck!