? for those who do/did BLW

seethesmiles

How did you teach your LO to bite off small pieces? No matter what size the piece of food is, DS sticks the entire thing in his mouth. This morning, I gave him a mini bagel. My thought was that because the mini bagel is too big for his mouth, he'd have to bite off a piece. I was wrong -- he managed to shove the entire thing in his mouth and then couldn't chew. Then he just stared at me until I finally pulled the thing out of his mouth. I know people say "he'll eventually learn" but he's almost a year!

UrbanHippieMama

We have the same issue!  And while she's gagging/choking on what's already in her mouth, she's shoving more in there!  I'm interested to hear what people say.

jescgrl

*sneaks in* I still have that issue with my almost 3 year old! he likes to shove it all in his mouth and chew later.

Cityplanner

How does he do with smaller pieces?  

What you describe is not really DD's problem, but I do notice that she often will take little things, like a black bean, and push them back in her mouth so she can gum them where her molar is.  I wonder if he's trying to do that?  

I know the general rule is to start with big things they can hold, but I wonder if small chunks would help him realize how fun it is to chew and swallow? 

 

seethesmiles

Cityplanner:

How does he do with smaller pieces?  

What you describe is not really DD's problem, but I do notice that she often will take little things, like a black bean, and push them back in her mouth so she can gum them where her molar is.  I wonder if he's trying to do that?  

I know the general rule is to start with big things they can hold, but I wonder if small chunks would help him realize how fun it is to chew and swallow? 

 

He's fine with small, manageable pieces. He just doesn't get the concept of biting off pieces.

freeburger16

I usually hold a piece of whatever I am giving him in front of his mouth, tell him to take a bite, then kind of show him.  I do this once or twice at the beginning of the meal and it helps him remember.  He still does his fair shair of shoving things in whole but it helps. 

When he does put a big piece in, he usually realizes he can't chew it and pull it back out himself though.  Only a handful of times in the last 6 months have I had to pull something out myself.

brideofaussie

And tearing small pieces doesn't work for my DS b/c he'll just grab a whole bunch and shove them in his mouth!!!

rianals

I calmly and respectfully remind DD that she needs to be careful and not take such big bites and warn her about the dangers of choking.  And then DH and my mom laugh at me.

Really, DD shoves huge things in her mouth and then has to take them out again.  If a big chunk is hanging out of her mouth, I might pull it out.  I spend most of each meal watching every morsel that ends up in DD's mouth. 

tmp-214118062502913

We just recently were able to give her big pieces.  We always did smaller pieces of things (exceot for corn on the cob, whole apple - things way bigger than her mouth).  She either was overwhelmed by it or shoved it in her mouth all at once.

E_sharp

We did BLW, and I haven't had that problem. Could be because I started out with big chunks that he couldn't stuff in his mouth no matter how much he tried.
Did you start your son on solids with BLW? Or are you going from purees to BLW?

Wish I could be more help.

Not sure if this has been said, but a baby's gag reflex is highly tuned to prevent choking, I figure you kinda gotta let him gag a few times to learn how to eat., if that makes sense. If he manages to stuff a whole piece of whatever in, let him try to deal with it.

seethesmiles

E_sharp:

Did you start your son on solids with BLW? Or are you going from purees to BLW?

Yes, but I did start with smaller pieces in the beginning. I guess that might have been my mistake. I don't mind a little gagging but now that I'm giving him larger pieces, he doesn't know what to do with them. If it's too big for him to chew, he doesn't realize that he can pull it back out of his mouth. He just kind of stares at me with this "now what do I do?" look on his face.