Scared to move past purées

Pitterpatter44 · November 2013

So LO is 7 months, and I think she's ready for some more solid food based on how she's slurping down the purées I give her. But I'm completely unsure how to do this safely and terrified she'll choke. The one time I was brave enough to let her pick at some shredded chicken, I was obsessive about it being in TINY pieces. The post about meal ideas has me completely baffled. I thought at first jt was a list of ideas for "Mom and Dad" food! Waffles??? How did you get there? Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing here...

oandmplus1 · November 2013

I am in the same boat, DS spits out anything with texture. I started giving him puffs and he is doing OK so I will probably try leaving his veggies and fruit in really soft pieces he can feed himself and see how he does

=Lee=B · November 2013

even though you started with purees you may benefit from reading up on baby led weaning. it is all about feeding real, solid foods to babies. It might give you the confidence to go beyond puress!

CrazyMary77 · November 2013

I know how you feel. I started putting pieces of soft solids on my LOs high chair. At first she would just look curiously, then she started touching and playing with it. Now she's started licking the food. I just started giving her Mum mum crackers, and she's been eating them. They dissolve in the mouth. I've also cooked slices of apple in water until they're really soft with some cinnamon. She loves it! You could also just make homemade purees thicker. I feel like these things are a good progression from purees to real foods.

ASmallWonder · November 2013

The good thing is that their gag is much closer to the front of their mouth than it is for older kids and adults so they're much less likely to get as far as choking. The suggestion to read up on baby led weaning is a good one because it talks about ideal size for foods and what kids can manage, Some kids can move from thinner purees to thicker or chunkier ones but some kids struggle and it makes the parents nervous that they'll choke on regular food. For my oldest he couldn't seem to wrap his brain around getting something on a spoon that he needed to chew. He'd try to swallow it as is and he'd gag. Regular food made more sense to him. He realized he needed to break it down first.

kmornelas29 · November 2013

We started off with Cheerios. Then puffs and yogurt melts. As soon as she was good at feeding herself those she was much more interested in finger foods. Now I have to give her purées before finger food or she won't eat the purée.

At first it can scary, and she did gag a time or two, but she learned from it, and now she does great!

Start off with really tiny pieces and gradually make them bigger. You will feel more comfortable and she will learn.

For us practicing with snacks worked best, then we moved into meals.

soft chunky food made me feel better in the beginning because I knew she could mush, which helped her learning to chew.

PinkandLove77 · November 2013

I am right there with you. The choking doesn't scare me as much (just a little), but I don't want the poor thing to throw up at every meal until he learns how much he can handle. But he LOVES his purees right now and enjoys the occasional solid food, so I'm okay.

dkny155 · November 2013

This is going to be tough one! My daughter is a little over 7 months and i have tried giving her pieces of puffs, banana, and small pieces of sweet potato and she has gaged at each one and really wants nothing to do with it. She is not liking the texture at all! I also made peas for her and i pureed them like i do with all her food and there was some soft bits of the shell of the pea in the puree and she wasz gagging and spitting it out!! I think this is going to be a very hard transiostion for us

=Lee=B · November 2013

As counter intuitive as it seems, try much larger pieces. Baby is much less likely to gag if they pick up a larger piece, bring to mouth and naw off a chunk. Typically you want it to be the size of a large French fry...long then their fist so they can grab it in their fist and have a bit poking out to chew on...but skinny enough they can wrap their hand around it.

As well, as horrible as it sounds the gagging is not a problem...it's their protective mechanism not to choke and their gag reflex is far forward in their mouth at this age...to prevent choking. They will gag at some point when you introduce solids. It is better to get past the gagging now while the reflex is so far forward than waiting until they are 12months+ and having them gag when the reflex is further back as it is easier to choke then. The more exposure to foods, the more they figure out that gag reflex, the sooner it passes...it's not an age thing for that to pass...but an exposure thing.

It's hard to watch...the mommy instinct is to swoop in and save baby. My husband and I had to sit on our hands and coax each other through it the first few times (this was us..."it's ok, she's good, she knows what she's doing, making gag noises means she's breathing, she's good"). My daughter would gag, spit it out and go right back for it happy as can be! After a few weeks she rarely gagged anymore and can handle pretty much any food, texture and shape!

stephrodgers07 · November 2013

I was really nervous too. I took an infant cpr class at babies r us and that has eased my mind immensely.

ebp913 · November 2013

=Lee=B said:

As counter intuitive as it seems, try much larger pieces. Baby is much less likely to gag if they pick up a larger piece, bring to mouth and naw off a chunk. Typically you want it to be the size of a large French fry...long then their fist so they can grab it in their fist and have a bit poking out to chew on...but skinny enough they can wrap their hand around it.
As well, as horrible as it sounds the gagging is not a problem...it's their protective mechanism not to choke and their gag reflex is far forward in their mouth at this age...to prevent choking. They will gag at some point when you introduce solids. It is better to get past the gagging now while the reflex is so far forward than waiting until they are 12months+ and having them gag when the reflex is further back as it is easier to choke then. The more exposure to foods, the more they figure out that gag reflex, the sooner it passes...it's not an age thing for that to pass...but an exposure thing.
It's hard to watch...the mommy instinct is to swoop in and save baby. My husband and I had to sit on our hands and coax each other through it the first few times (this was us..."it's ok, she's good, she knows what she's doing, making gag noises means she's breathing, she's good"). My daughter would gag, spit it out and go right back for it happy as can be! After a few weeks she rarely gagged anymore and can handle pretty much any food, texture and shape!

All of this. I totally agree with the bigger the better too. DS eats whole waffles. I give him the entire waffle not cut up and he holds it with his hands and knaws on it til it's gone basically. My rule of thumb is either very small (like puff size) or nice and big to where they can hold onto one side and have the other end in their mouth. Green beans and broccoli are great for this.

MrsG071809 · November 2013

ebp913 said:

=Lee=B said:

As counter intuitive as it seems, try much larger pieces. Baby is much less likely to gag if they pick up a larger piece, bring to mouth and naw off a chunk. Typically you want it to be the size of a large French fry...long then their fist so they can grab it in their fist and have a bit poking out to chew on...but skinny enough they can wrap their hand around it.
As well, as horrible as it sounds the gagging is not a problem...it's their protective mechanism not to choke and their gag reflex is far forward in their mouth at this age...to prevent choking. They will gag at some point when you introduce solids. It is better to get past the gagging now while the reflex is so far forward than waiting until they are 12months+ and having them gag when the reflex is further back as it is easier to choke then. The more exposure to foods, the more they figure out that gag reflex, the sooner it passes...it's not an age thing for that to pass...but an exposure thing.
It's hard to watch...the mommy instinct is to swoop in and save baby. My husband and I had to sit on our hands and coax each other through it the first few times (this was us..."it's ok, she's good, she knows what she's doing, making gag noises means she's breathing, she's good"). My daughter would gag, spit it out and go right back for it happy as can be! After a few weeks she rarely gagged anymore and can handle pretty much any food, texture and shape!

All of this. I totally agree with the bigger the better too. DS eats whole waffles. I give him the entire waffle not cut up and he holds it with his hands and knaws on it til it's gone basically. My rule of thumb is either very small (like puff size) or nice and big to where they can hold onto one side and have the other end in their mouth. Green beans and broccoli are great for this.

Ditto all of this! Once you learn the difference between gagging and choking, and realize that gagging is normal and perfectly fine, it is much easier. DD still gags every now and then but like PP said it doesn't even phase her and she just keeps on eating.

We never did purees and have done BLW since 6 months and she has made a ton of progress. She started out just playing with food, usually spitting back out anything that went in her mouth, and now she can eat just about anything - even without any teeth! She also figured out how to feed herself with a spoon with very little direction from us. It really is amazing what they can do if you let them figure it out on their own

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