Gagging on eggy bread....

[mima08]

I took some deep breaths yesterday and decided it was time to let LO try solids. He is only a few days of 6months and constantly reaching for my foods and as I am doing Baby Lead Weaning I figured he wouldn't be actually eating any meaningful amounts for a few weeks yet, so lets go. All was going well with banana and apply - some great facial expressions and a tiny amount of apple potentially swallowed. This morning I decided to go for eggy bread strips (yes, I got the BLW cookbook from the library). As before, he went for it with gusto, shoving pieces into his mouth and sucking bits off. Some went down, some was thrown up, which did not bother me as I figure that as a coping mechanism. However, at some point I noticed a largish piece of bread fairly far back in his mouth and he seemed to be having trouble getting it forward in his mouth. He turned slightly red - at which point I picked him up & laid him on my leg & tapped back, as learned in first aid, which seemed to help immediately. I am now fairly spooked, however, and would like to hear from other who done BLW with any tips / words of encouragement etc please....

[Saffron]

That sounds totally normal. It sounds like he was just gagging on the bread. It can look really scary, but it's fine. Little Saff is a BLW baby. She gagged like that a lot in the beginning. She would sometimes even gag herself with a carrot stick in one hand, while still trying to put more food in her mouth with her other hand. She's 18 months now. She eats like horse and has never choked.

Turning red and appearing to struggle to bring food forward are signs of gagging. Coughing and wheezing are signs of a partial choke. A silent, purple face is true choking.

It's best not to interfere with gagging, b/c gagging is the reflex that prevents choking. Mr Saff really struggled with this in the first few weeks of baby led weaning. He used to jump up from the dinner table in a panic. Gagging really is more upsetting for the observer than the baby.

Remember how the esophagus and trachea (windpipe) work together. When swallowing is initiated, the esophagus moves, the entrance to the windpipe is closed, and food passes into the esophagus and down to the stomach. If Baby is trying to swallow a large piece of food, the windpipe is closed and food cannot pass into it. Neither can it pass down to the stomach if the piece is too large. The offending food is brought back up into the mouth, and the windpipe is again uncovered.

During gagging, baby does not breathe, but this is not the same as choking. It may seem like a long time to go without breathing, but actually it is not more than a few seconds which is fine. Choking occurs when there is an unnatural sequence of swallowing resulting in food entering the windpipe where it cannot be brought back up by gagging. So, actually gagging is a good sign that Baby's reflexes are working.

When you try eggy bread again, cut the strips of bread very narrow. We found that with a narrower strip of bread, Little Saff tore off a small bite.

xx

[mima08]

Thank you Saffron, that is very helpful.I thought I had steeled myself for the gagging as all the literature says gagging is a "good" reflex i.e. not to worry too much, but first instance of it & I do panic... will have to train my nerves a bit. I guess it also freaked me that he was very quiet - but then he has been very quiet throughout the whole experiment. Will also make the strips thinner - I had made them wide-ish to make them easier to pick up.

Any other real-life tips would be really appreciated!

thanks xx

[reren]

Just as a word of encouragement - i gave my baby some banana early on and completely freaked out when he gagged on it - i grabbed him and threw him upside down and slapped his back - not exactly the chilled eating experience i'd intended to give him! Really wasnt sure i could keep going with it! In fact i gave him purees for a number of weeks til i felt a bit more confident - but i found i began to relax the more i saw him eating and doing just fine. Took a while to feel comfortable but i found giving him things like toast and other quite solid things was good. At first he just sucked and wiped things around the tray so i didnt worry too much!! Didnt take long before he as eating the toast properly and i started to feel i could try meats and other more tricky things. I certainly think its possible to do a bit of a combination of some purees and some solid until you feel confident- some of the things i read gave the impression you had to do full blw or nothing!