Are we doing something wrong??

Question

I see all these other babies eating so many different things with complex textures and wondering if we are too scared ourselves to let our baby try things. The “chocking”/cough/reflex has my husband, and now me very nervous to try foods other and purees and she will be 9 months next week... any helpful tips on how to get over this? We have tried small pieces of banana but they just stick to the table and she can’t get them up lol the few super tiny pieces of bread we gave her had her gagging so bad. 
She enjoys eating, and likes lots of different foods, I just don’t know where to go from here.

Answer

I 500000% don’t trust my baby to eat anything more than regular purée. Food is just fun until 1 year old anyway.  She still chokes on her bottles. We have fun with puree. I’m making sure she has a good relationship with fruits and veggies flavors before I start introducing her to anything else. I’m against baby led weaning for my children. So while one of her playmates at her age was eating broccoli and pasta and chicken and whatever had never eaten purée, my baby at her age is eating bottles with iron fortified organic baby oatmeal in them and fruit and veggie purees. She gets the recommended amounts of iron for a baby her age. I VERY strongly disagree with letting baby eat whatever parent is eating. If someone does it for their kid that’s their business and it’s their kid, but I will not be doing this for any of my children.

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We do purees but at the same time offer something he can “play” with and try to eat on his own. Yesterday for lunch he had his pureed pear, spinach, and cinnamon but also some pork and pasta salad that he could pick up and put in his mouth.

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I follow a baby led weaning  meals ideas Facebook group and found it really helpful. Heaps of mums asking questions, very supportive and lots of photos on correctly cutting foods to the right size - really recommend it 👍🏻

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We started BLW at 5,5 months and the gag reflex is almost gone by now.- She will be 8 months in a week. We spoon feed and give her finger food in return. Never pureed anything because I have seen 3-4 year old kids who still can’t handle textured foods. She had two choking experience so far and ended up puking really bad. My general rule is if she is coughing or breathing I let her to gag, I don’t interrupt. But when she choked she wasn’t making any sound which means she wasn’t breathing. So I picked her up, flipped her up side down and hit her back couple times. She puked everywhere and she was fine. Thank god! It is def scary but like I said she adjusted very quickly. She uses her gums like teeth already... Try not to give sticky foods or foods with sandy textures. Like she choked on boiled potatoes both the time because I think without butter potato is very dry and dissolves in a sandy structure in mouth. Or I don’t give flat bread because it is stretchy even when it gets wet so it becomes sticky. Avocado, yogurt, pancakes, soft spongy breads, green beans, soft cheese, mozzarella cheese sticks, carrots, beats, fish, lamb are perfect. Good luck!

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We started with the baby puffs, then avocado and banana pieces. For the banana, you can roll the pieces in crushed puff/cereal and that gives it enough texture so they can pick it up easier. Now my girl eats everything (scrambled eggs are her favorite) but I am afraid of giving her bigger chunks. I don't trust her to bite pieces off yet and not choke, so I still cut everything up small. She has gagged three times and I panicked and grabbed her and smacked her back in case she was choking, but in retrospect I think she got the food unstuck herself.

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I did purees with my son and he’s terrible with texture and gags at the slightest chunk. But lately he’s been getting into puffs and is handling them really well so I’ve been slowly making his food chunkier and seeing how he handles it. He still gagged on a small piece of banana today but he’s getting better. I think all babies are different and go with what works for you and your baby!(and husband)

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Thank you so much for all these tips and different perspectives! Love this group more than any others as we are all experiencing the same events around the same time and can really help one another out! ♥️♥️♥️

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I’m in the same boat as you but I’m less scared... my husband is scared shitless that something is going to happened to his princess 🙄🤷🏻‍♀️
For our son we had started with purées and way later we started with finger food, he choked and puked a few times but he was fine.
My daughter is 8 months old now and I literately have her a baby biscuit this morning, she loved it, it melts really quickly too.
I did a quick research on BLW and it’s interesting. I would invite you to read the blog of a woman that I follow since a de years now, it’s called BLW ideas. She only did bf and BLW and I was reassured a lot by what she says.
Start small and make sure that the food is super soft so that it breaks easily in the mouth.
As well, she gives banana whole but keeps the skin on, she removes just a bit of skin so baby can hold on to something, if it makes sense?!
Good luck mama, you got this 💪🏻

Answer

My girl was also born October 2nd! 😍 
We actually skipped purées all together. Yes, she has coughed and gaged on food countless times (even vomited twice), but as long as you are with her and watching her, she will figure it out. Coughing and gagging are actually a vital part about learning to eat. We started with a bit of roasted sweet potato (cooked, obviously) and then boiled broccoli, and it’s just kind of progressed from there. We make sure to break everything into small enough pieces it would be almost impossible to choke lol you can also feed her those small chunks of banana if she will let you :)

Answer

Coughing is different from choking. Coughing is a totally normal part of learning to eat. It helps then reposition food in their mouth to chew and swallow. 
Look into Baby led weaning and go from there. I don’t like to start with very soft foods as they are hard to handle and sometimes stick to the roof of a baby’s mouth. Try some buttered toast cut into 1” wide strips. Or my personal favorite is a whole apple. Yes, while. You can skin it if you like (my kids prefer skinned). Hand it to baby and watch as she learns to manipulate it and take bites. She will only be able to get small pieces off so it’s a great first food! You can aim for food to be about the same size and length as your index finger for reference.  Once you have gotten over your fear, venture out! Your baby has got this!

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