LO just turned 8 months old and has been eating solids purees since 4.5 months. For the past 3 months, I have kept trying to slowly get him to the next step with rice mum mums (about 5 times), Ella's puffs (about 5 times) and this week, Cheerios twice. With the mum mums, he enjoys it, nibbles at it no problem, and then always gets a chunk that is too big stuck on his tongue and he pukes. With Ella's puffs, same deal... eats a few and eventually gets a big one that lingers too long and he gags and pukes. I thought Cheerios this week would be good, he just started crawling and the cheerios are much smaller. First time, he at like a dozen and it was no problem. Second time, he ate 5 and then again, gagged and puked. He has a pretty strong gag reflex in general, pretty much every bottle feeding, he will drink 3 ounces and when he gets near that point, he will start gagging a bit which means you stop, wait 20-30 minutes, and then give him another 2 ounces or else be soaked in spit up.
Anyone else go through this? I guess my question is, is this a signal that he is not ready and should wait a few more weeks, or does this simply mean to keep going and allow him to puke until he gets used to eating finger foods?
Re: 8 month old, still can't handle finger foods?
What time of day are you feeding him?
I, as an adult have a horrible gag reflex. If my tooth brush touches my tongue in the morning it sends me into a gagging fit doing all I can not to throw up. I can't eat breakfast until being awake for a good 2hrs.
Have you tried feeding him at different times of the day to see if it helps? Or waiting until he's been up from a nap for awhile first? Not sure it'll help but something to think about.
As well, my daughter is BLW and eats everything, last night she spent 30minutes chewing down steak and potatoes...but still a cheerio can make her gag. It's the fact that they are so small they can't get control of it in their mouth before they hit the gag reflex so it takes them by surprise and they gag to get it out as a safety mechanism.
Maybe he would benefit from having a big piece of feed to hold to his mouth and chew off on his own? You can google Baby led weaning for a bit of info to see if interested.