BLW - gagging and puking?

[Nicole730]

I really want to do BLW, but I don't know if I could handle it. I have a vomit-phobia and the idea of DD gagging/puking as she learns how to eat, and my 2 year old copying her, makes me cringe.

How often do they gag? I've given DD watermelon, nectarine, and plum, but just let her suck on the pieces of fruit as I'm holding them. I tried to give her a piece of raw cucumber stick yesterday, but it freaked me out because I thought she had too much of it in her mouth and she was going to gum off a big chunk.

DD will be 6 months on Sept 5th. She has been sitting for almost a month. She almost has the pincer grasp down, she can pick up small items, just not always with her thumb and forefinger. Her tongue thrust is starting to go away too, so I am pretty sure she will be ready and wanting solids in a few weeks.

[Cujobunny]

I think each baby is different & will have different sensitivities & gag reflexes. I don't recall my dd ever gagging, if she did it was very very rare. She definitely never puked.

[Perdita_in_Ontario]

DS is gagging (and pulling some terrible faces!) still - I haven't done total BLW but giving him small, unchokable bits of banana and fruit. I know he's gagging because he's not sure what to do with the food, but I don't like it.

Yesterday I did let him hold a handful of banana and take a big bite, but then freaked when he gagged - so clearly one of us isn't ready for this step!!

I do believe in the value of BLW though so we are just going to limit solids until he's doing better with them.

[sapphire_chan]

Try it and see. DD rarely gagged, she'd just plorp stuff back out (partially chewed, but not nasty like vomit) if she couldn't manage. She has vomited from eating too much at once, but it was last month.

For dd, the things that caused the gagging were when I tried to cut her a small piece and she ended up putting the whole thing in her mouth, or if I gave her a large piece of something soft and she'd bite off too much. It all got sorted out by 8 months or so, but in the early days the safest food was somewhat hard and in a nice large hunk that she could take a bit from. E.g. a stalk of broccoli, sharing an apple with me.

She'd take tiny little speck bites, maybe the size of a grain of rice (again, this is when she very first started on solids), if I would've tried cutting her food that small, she would've just grabbed a handful to shove in her mouth.

[Nicole730]

Thanks for the input. I guess I will just see how it goes. Maybe she will be a superbaby and be able to feed herself purees on a spoon, although considering my two year old has barely mastered that skill, I'm probably dreaming. I think I will do little chunks, but just put one or two pieces on her plate at a time.

[alegna]

Neither of mine ever really gagged or vomited while learning to eat. Neither vomited at all and gagging was very very unusual.

-Angela

[tzs]

we gagged in the very beginning, i think maybe only twice. and it was really small foods that did it....rice and the oats of oatmeal.
i did a finger swipe for a huge chunk of watermelon once.
vomiting never.