Hellobee Boards

Have you tried thinning the thicker foods? My kids have food issues but we are handling them through EI. Not too much help but I know what it is like. Big hugs!

My son has always had a super strong gag reflex. Even now at 2.5 he will gag if he gets too much food or a weird texture. It just took time when we were in purée phase. I just kept up with it and kept an eye out, it got much better, but sounds similar, just weird with textures.

Oh - and my son didn't get his first tooth until 1 too so I waited on a lot of stuff, since he was such a gagged, I figured it just gave us more time to figure it out. He was good early on with tofu, shredded cheese, peas, rotisserie chicken, hmm, what else. He's kinda picky

Yeah, this is really just a time thing. It won't last forever.

My baby was still gagging a lot at that age, too! And also not really "chewing" foods well. It just took her a little extra time. Since we'd had so many feeding issues prior to solids, I think I really fixated on it too much---but then I read someone else's post in my birth month (Lawbee maybe?) whose LO hadn't had feeding issues but also wasn't into solids yet and that calmed me down.

I think it's normal. My almost 18 month old still gags on some foods...like when trying to shovel handfuls of spaghetti in at once!

If it's the spoon feeding purees that you're hesitant about, do you think she might like something frozen in a silicone self feeder? Just to preserve her self feeding skills but present the food in a different way. And maybe give her smoother options.

@Mae: My DD gagged and threw up almost every day, even with purees, for... 2 or 3 months. I'm pretty sure it was related to teething somehow. We never figured it out. But yeah, she's 13 months now and will pick up and bite things with skin, but always gags and spits it out and doesn't eat it. Even hot dog/sausage type things. The only meat she can/will eat is ground. She sort of bit of some steak last night but she's not into it. I make a lot of tacos and pasta to get her to eat some meat.

So I sort of went off on a tangent, but my point is that she'll probably get better with time. Lol.

@Mae: I interpreted the "food before one is just for fun" as that time was for practice and that they didn't need to be balanced meals because the actual nutrition comes from BM/formula. As opposed to right now where we try to have fruits, veggies and protein as a part of every meal, or least balanced over the course of a day.

I think most people reduce or stop formula by 12m, so that's why they *need* the 3 meals.

This sounds like something I could've posted when Xander was that age. Even at 12 months, Xander struggled with more textured food and was JUST starting to eat the stage 3 purees and barely ate any finger foods. It's just a time thing, I think. Eventually Xander got past it (maybe by 16-17 months?) and now eats a wide variety of finger foods! But I remember feeling so stressed about it because he seemed so behind from other HB babies the same age.