Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Parenting › Ages and Stages › Life With a Babe › Those of you who do BLW- how do you give the baby chunks without being scared of choking?
New Posts  All Forums:
 

Those of you who do BLW- how do you give the baby chunks without being scared of choking? - Page 2

post #21 of 50
10/26/10 at 11:39pm
People chew with their molars. Front teeth are for biting. Kids don't get molars until 18 months - 2 years. They chew fine with just gums. Maybe not steak, but certainly most foods.
Sponsored Links
post #22 of 50
10/26/10 at 11:43pm
Thread Starter 
so you mean I can just give my 7 month old son a chunk of ripe pear (for example) and he will chew and swallow it? forgive my ignorance but this whole concept is new to me- parenting in general and all its nuances are new to me! But the transitioning from only breastmilk to considering giving my son chunks to chew- I guess it overwhelms and frightens me!! I wonder if my fear is something to heed- like an instinct, like I will know when it feels safe for him to have chunks of food? Or if my fear is actually the ignorance of first time parenting. Anyone here NOT advocate BLW? or is it pretty accepted all around?

I know the other day when I started this post, when ds was trying to eat that piece of ripe pear I was eating, he REALLY wanted to chew it! It was only my fear that didn't allow that. But dh and I agreed- don't do it until it feels safe to you, so we went with that.
post #23 of 50
10/27/10 at 12:18am
very nice, P&H! Today I had lunch with relatives and they were wanting to feed my baby (6.5 months) everything - "can't she have some butter?" "you know she wants to eat some of this roll" etc etc. I gave her a tiny bit of broccoli and a slurp of watermelon, and nothing made it down her throat. Her gag reflex IS way more forward, so at this point anything that's not milk just gets spit out (with lots of drama, like, what IS this?! ). I can't imagine how a 3 or 4 month old learns to eat?
Our pediatrician told me "just spoonfeed her a bite of puree every day, and then when she gets used to that, give her another bite, otherwise she'll never learn to eat." Who doesnt' learn to eat?!!
I like letting her play and discover texture, smell, taste, practicing grasping, etc. Some babies her age LOVE to eat, but she doesn't get it or isn't interested yet. It's weird that there's so much pressure but I'm trying to stay strong - I'll keep offering bits (and some purees, but always with the baby in control of the spoon or dipping her fingers in it) and no push it.

I have a feeling it's a LOT easier to clean up leaky breastmilk than it is to clean up after a food-hungry child anyway so no hurry there!!
post #24 of 50
10/27/10 at 2:29am
We actually did start with the puree not exclusivly but at first it was like a 90/10 split between puree and whole foods for her solids... It was easier when we were jsut testing for reactions and giving the first tastes...and she did really well but she is now 7.5 months weve been trying diffrent solids for aroudn 1 month now and honestly she jsut doesn't want the purees and is just doing a lot better with whole foods... She now gets mini versions of what we eat minus obvious allergy triggers (peanuts for example) and heavy sugar.. (no birthday cake from today) shes has no teeth but jsut this week alone shes had
Chicken breast just gave her a chunk shes jsut sucked it dry
chicken leg bones
steak with bone
(baby loves bones)
rice self feeding
tomatoes she loves these just takes a slice and sucks all the juice out
mango and peach chunks I buy it frozen cut a piece in half stick it on a toddler fork and baby treats it like a popsicle
apple and pear slices just give her a hunk skin on the skin keeps the little parts together
Bannana sucks and mushes down
cold cereal (practices her pincher grasp)
green beans /sugar snap peas grasps in hand and sucks
hummus and bell peppers I just put a little on a slice and she goes to town
you get the idea....
I keep a few earth best breakfast blend stage 2 jar foods she will takes these there my back up stuff but the rest we've pretty much have given away.

Deanna
post #25 of 50
10/27/10 at 2:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapdragon View Post
so you mean I can just give my 7 month old son a chunk of ripe pear (for example) and he will chew and swallow it? forgive my ignorance but this whole concept is new to me- parenting in general and all its nuances are new to me! But the transitioning from only breastmilk to considering giving my son chunks to chew- I guess it overwhelms and frightens me!! I wonder if my fear is something to heed- like an instinct, like I will know when it feels safe for him to have chunks of food? Or if my fear is actually the ignorance of first time parenting. Anyone here NOT advocate BLW? or is it pretty accepted all around?

I know the other day when I started this post, when ds was trying to eat that piece of ripe pear I was eating, he REALLY wanted to chew it! It was only my fear that didn't allow that. But dh and I agreed- don't do it until it feels safe to you, so we went with that.
he would probably gum it down and then spit it out. it took at least a couple of weeks before anything really made it down my daughter's throat. we worked our way from soft, squishy foods up. DD is 17 months, still doesn't have molars (though a couple are coming in) and is able to chew raw carrot and apple, and dried fruit. only thing I don't give her (other than nuts, raisens, and popcorn) is lettuce (she could probably handle crunchier lettuce, but it makes me nervous still). would you feel safer starting with something really mushy? banana, etc? that's what my comfort level was starting out because it's so easy to chew, but does require a little mashing on the baby's part (though they can swallow it without chewing it and not choke).
post #26 of 50
10/27/10 at 10:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snapdragon View Post
I never thought of it this way. Do you mean that even if I start the baby on chunky food later, that he will still have to go through the gagging thing?
the thing is, he only has one tooth now! So wouldn't it be easier for him to chew and properly swallow when he has more teeth?
There is so much to learn as a first time parent!
Comparing dd and her cousins, yeah, starting chunky baby food later means a LOT more gagging. And a lot more scary gagging. When dd was starting solid foods (at 6 months) her gag reflex was far enough forward that to get stuff out she just opened her mouth and tipped her head forward a bit. The cousins all had times they looked like they were nearly going to choke when they started (9-ish months), while dd could handle pretty much any food (not sandwiches--baby hands are small!) by that point.

Because she had practicing with gumming things to bits, when her molars came in she went right to chewing. The ones who started at 9 months didn't really seem to get chewing until around a year. Part of that was having to spend the time learning how big of a bite they could manage, how to move the food around to get it between the teeth without sending it too far back in the mouth. They probably could've learned it faster, but by 9 months old, life was too exciting to sit and explore food for an extended time.

I will say, on the pear thing, my first experience with scary gagging happened with dd got a soft pear slice (a week after introducing solids) and she took a bite that was too big. I think harder foods are actually safer because they let the baby take a more reasonable bit. Full sized carrots are awesome for seeing the eeensy beansy little baby nibbles.
post #27 of 50
10/27/10 at 12:14pm
I'm really strongly in favor of BLW for two main reasons:
1) they have to learn to move food around their mouths and handle solids at some point, it makes more sense to me to do it while the gag reflex is way up front and they can easily get rid of anything they can't handle.
2) I think babies are born with a finely honed ability to know how much they should be eating and I like to preserve that as much as possible. I find spoon feeding can easily lead, the just one more bite to finish the jar mentality which bit by bit does errode their ability to self-regulate.
post #28 of 50
10/27/10 at 12:19pm
They really handle it pretty well, but you do have to be prepared to go in with a finger swipe if they have trouble with something, though honestly that's forever and regardless of whether you do BLW. I had to swipe my older dd's mouth because she was having trouble with something when she was like 5 or 6. Just pull something out if it seems like she's having trouble. Eventually she'll know to spit stuff out that's too big and give it to you.
post #29 of 50
10/27/10 at 12:43pm
Something to keep in mind is the difference between gagging and choking. With gagging, you'll hear the baby make interesting noises as they figure out what to do with the food. Sometimes they'll even throw up a bit, but it's a pretty noisy experience and is part of learning how to eat. With choking, the baby can't make lots of sound at all; in fact, it's generally eerily quiet when a baby actually chokes. You won't hear a lot and you also won't see breathing (chest rising, etc).
post #30 of 50
10/27/10 at 12:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peace+Hope View Post

the woman who coined "BLW" has a book by the same name. she has a lot of anecdotal evidence through her decades of experience, which she references a lot in the book, but also talks about the physcial development of babies and why BLW fits well with that.
Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. Mine arrived today and it looks like a great basic introduction. Snapdragon, maybe you would feel better about it after reading the book. It seems like you want to try it but just need more information to give you some confidence. I also second the idea of taking infant CPR.

DS isn't quite ready yet, but I'm excited to try BLW when he is. I actually didn't even know what it was until a couple weeks ago reading threads here. I always assumed it just meant starting solids (purees, the "regular" way) when the baby shows interest as opposed to on a specific date. Ah, the wonderful things we learn from MDC!
post #31 of 50
10/27/10 at 12:59pm
gagging is NOT bad! gagging is good! be happy when you see gagging. it means the baby is doing what it is supposed to and getting food out of their mouths.

i am still a partial BLWer... i don't think it's bad to spoon feed some foods some of the time. i never made totally smooth purees though, and it was usually a consistency that i would eat myself, like mashed lentils, pureed soups, applesauce etc.

anyway, babies are at far greater risk of choking on non-food items. there aren't too many foods (besides nuts, grapes and chopped raw carrot) that are the right size and firmness to block a child's windpipe. large pieces of baked squash, sweet potato and softer fruit are really good places to start.
post #32 of 50
10/27/10 at 1:36pm
I hope you weren't referring to my gagging vs choking post; I said in it that gagging is part of learning how to eat!
post #33 of 50
10/27/10 at 1:50pm
I'm one of those that does some purees and some BLW. With ds 2 we only did purees for a few weeks, along with some BLW too. I gave up with chunks of anything but sweet potato (he seemed to be okay with that), for awhile because he would gag and throw up so much he seemed really unhappy about it. And although I expected the gagging the continual throwing up with each bite didn't seem okay. He had 6 teeth pretty early but he DID NOT yet have the gumming/chewing thing down at all. So he was taking off chunks that he really wasn't ready to deal with yet.

By 9 months or so we pretty much weren't doing purees. Although he does get yogurt on a spoon and was getting oatmeal until he gave that up recently. He's kind of venturing on a picky stage recently and going only for his tried favorites. Even now sometimes he will really gag things down in too big of bites without chewing enough.
post #34 of 50
10/27/10 at 1:57pm
Thread Starter 
I totally respect this option (BLW) but the more I consider it, the more I confirm that I don't think this is the right choice for me!
post #35 of 50
10/27/10 at 2:25pm
I did BLW with DD, and I think I might do more purees with DS. Her growth slowed down a lot around 1 year old, and I think she wasn't getting quite enough calories for a while there. At almost 3, she's finally becoming a better eater, but I would have liked her to have had more food (rather than breastmilk) at an earlier age because I was worn out from so much nursing, especially when she went through some later-babyhood growth spurts. DS was premature, and is still very young, so I still have time to decide, but the supplements (vitamins and extra calories) he got in the hospital seemed to help him a lot.
post #36 of 50
10/27/10 at 3:16pm
I really have enjoyed this thread... I am fascinated by everyone's opinions and experiences! I think I'll check out the BLW book. I read Feeding Baby Green which was more about healthy and real-food choices then anything substantial to follow for feeding... Our LO is only 2 months but I know this will come up for us just as quick as everything else has. I want to take a CPR class too. I just want to know what to do... I agree with a PP that having a mental plan is really important for maintaining confidence in yourself and I really want to know mentally what I would do if anything happened to her, re: choking.
post #37 of 50
10/27/10 at 3:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by P.J. View Post
Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. Mine arrived today and it looks like a great basic introduction. Snapdragon, maybe you would feel better about it after reading the book. It seems like you want to try it but just need more information to give you some confidence. I also second the idea of taking infant CPR.

DS isn't quite ready yet, but I'm excited to try BLW when he is. I actually didn't even know what it was until a couple weeks ago reading threads here. I always assumed it just meant starting solids (purees, the "regular" way) when the baby shows interest as opposed to on a specific date. Ah, the wonderful things we learn from MDC!
definitely! i read so much about BLW on MDC, i didn't think i'd need a book. but, i finally decided i wanted a single source with everything laid out, kwim? i had the same fears and concerns, snapdragon!

cececia'smama and jsh

eta: not trying to talk anyone into doing BLW, btw, kwim? lol
post #38 of 50
10/27/10 at 3:38pm
I admit, I've been sooooo excited to use BLW, but I had an incident the other night that scared me and DH. I read the book and online articles and really felt confident about BLW, but! Eden took a HUGE bite out of a finger food of steamed yam the other night. It was very thoroughly steamed and mushed at the touch. But the BIG bite went to the back of her tongue, and she hasn't developed the tongue coordination yet to move a big chunk around yet, so she started gagging. She gagged and gagged and gagged and she couldn't breathe (her face turned deep red) until she finally vomited. Thank goodness. I know this is normal, but it could have been prevented.

The book says that it takes at LEAST 2 weeks for a baby to develop the tongue coordination to maneuver food around well in the mouth, and swallow. Now I believe that we should have just mushed steamed veggies for her to play with and experiment for at least 2 weeks, before offering finger foods. I think this is a better way to begin BLW, and I'm going to do this for at least a week before offering finger foods again.
post #39 of 50
10/27/10 at 3:48pm
If she cant' breathe, she'll turn blue, her lips first.
post #40 of 50
10/27/10 at 9:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecilia's Mama View Post
I hope you weren't referring to my gagging vs choking post; I said in it that gagging is part of learning how to eat!
i was just reiterating that gagging is part of learning to eat. no disagreement to your post on my part.
New Posts  All Forums:
 
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Life With a Babe
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Parenting › Ages and Stages › Life With a Babe › Those of you who do BLW- how do you give the baby chunks without being scared of choking?