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I am in the car and can't link right now (I will come back later!) But this was a concern of mine as well. If you Google blw and choking you will probably find the same articles I did. Basically, babies fine motor skills develop after their oral muscles...meaning that if they can get it to their mouth, their mouth should be able to handle it. With blw babies learn to chew big pieces first before they ever swallow them. Also, the gag reflex is located much further forward in their mouth than in adults, so long before food gets close to theis throat the will gag and move the food forward. As long as baby is sitting up straight (so food can't fall backward...reclining is dangerous) and you allow baby to self feed (don't put anything in their mouth for them...let them regulate what goes in their mouth) it is perfectly safe. We did blw and I wouldn't change it for a second. It was amazing watching him grow into a confident eater!

Exactly what @Mrs. Lion: said. I read up in it and knew to expect gagging, which helped me stay calm because he did gag a few times. I also kept reminding myself that as long as he could cough and make noise that he was not choking, and he would then spit everything out. It's amazing how fast they learn and the gagging part passes.

I did start with avocado and mashed sweet potatoes, which are easy for babies to mash up and swallow.

@babybean404: She did best with wide wedges of avocado, wide wedges of very soft pear, and bites of whole banana (I held it for her and let her bite). Also though, for me personally... I wouldn't have been so rigid with BLW. Like I wanted to ONLY do it that way and I don't really know why. I've loosened up over time and I give her everything now-- whole food, "kid food" (puffs, melts, etc), and purees. When I give her purees I do spoon feed her if she opens her mouth and wants me to, and if she reaches for the spoon I let her do it. I just offer everything and let her eat what she wants to eat. I found doing strictly BLW exhausting and its really nice to just be able to open up a pouch of puree if I don't have a pear at the right level of ripeness, etc.

I think the most important thing to remember is there is a difference between choking and gagging. Gagging is the baby's way of preventing choking and is totally fine. We did BLW and let DD eat anything we were eating, she gagged occasionally, but has never choked.

The best starter foods are banana, avocado, and sweet potato. All are soft enough for the babies to gum and move around their mouths but firm enough to hold their spear shape for the baby to hold.

Definitely a big difference between choking (silent, motionless, turning blue) and gagging (clearing the airway). My daughter was really good with food. She only gagged badly a handful of times. Sometimes because she deliberately pushed a spoon down her throat. I fed her a variety of challenging foods from the beginning and she never chocked.

I really believe that one of the benefits of blw is that they learn to handle different foods in their mouths without choking from an early age, when the protective gag reflex is most sensitive. With BLW they have to chew before they swallow. Purées encourages them to swallow everything which is more likely to lead to choking as they start eating finger foods.

There are 1yo in my Jan 2014 group that still only eat purées. I think introducing finger foods early is KEY!

@babybean404: For me BLW was more of a philosophy that I believed in. I wanted (and still want) my kids to be able to regulate their own appetite. When bottle feeding, this meant paced feeds and stopping when he wasn't interested in anymore rather than forcing a certain number of ounces. When it was time to start solids, it meant that I did not believe in scheduling solids and spoon feeding. I wanted meals to be social for LO, so we started with dinner. We put him at the table starting at 5 months so he could observe. At 6 months we started offering whatever from our dinner was safe according to the feeding rules. So, for example, if we were having grilled chicken, I would slice off a long finger sized strip and let him gnaw on it and suck on the juice. If we were having sweet potato fries I would hand him one. If we were having broccoli, I would give him the biggest spear I could find. I didn't prepare special foods for him, but when I planned our meals I tried to make sure there was at least one thing that he could have or that we could adapt for him. He just experimented with what we were eating. He didn't really "eat" solids until probably 9 months or so. He would chew and then spit things out until then. Eventually his pincer grasp developed and we started giving him smaller foods...peas, diced carrots, cheerios, etc. Eventually, as he got closer to a year, we started "feeding' 3 meals a day and he gradually got better at eating solids. By the time he turned 1 we switched from formula to whole milk during meals and he transitioned very easily.

My big thing is I wanted him to experience varied textures from the beginning, and I wanted him to be able to self feed. So yes, we did yogurt and applesauce, even those require a spoon, but instead of spooning it into his mouth I would "load" the spoon for him and hand it to him. It was messy, but it was fun

The reason some people say you can't do BLW and spoon feed is that the philosophies are completely opposite. You can absolutely spoon feed and include finger foods, but that isn't really BLW. BLW means letting go of the control and letting baby be independent. A lot of people interchange the term BLW with feeding finger foods...but really they aren't the same thing at all.

That said, you are the parent and you can feed your child any way you are comfortable! If allowing that level of independence makes you uncomfortable, that is okay! The name of it really doesn't matter

I just started BLW a few weeks ago with my younger one (a few days after she turned 6M). With my older daughter, I had fun with making and mixing purees (of increasingly chunkier consistencies) for a few months, but with my younger one, I realized how much easier it was to just make sure there was something for her to eat and have her sit and eat with us.

I agree with everything Mrs Lion and some of the other ladies have said so don't want to repeat the same great info, but just want to emphasize that gagging is a totally normal and natural reaction to having their gag reflex so far forward. Just inform yourself of the differences of choking and gagging before you go into and don't be scared - your fear will affect your baby and you want her to love and enjoy food from the start.

I love it so far and love that she is learning how to put food in her mouth instead of me overriding her with a spoon in her face. I also want to point out that there is evidence that spoon feeding is possibly even worse for choking because you are overriding their natural gag reflex and they aren't learning how to chew their food in the process.

We started with plain baked sweet potato fries, cucumber sticks, broccoli stalks, steamed carrots, butternut squash and pickles. Everything was soft steamed and cut into vaguely french fry size pieces so she could pick it up. I also love cutting things with the crinkle cutter so it made things easier for her to grab. She has a harder time with banana and avocado because she has been mushing them in her hand (although that is fun too and we don't worry yet if she has a "meal" where nothing gets in her mouth). All food at this point is for fun, but also for playing with, learning about taste and texture too.

I would read more blog posts on here or other sites from BLW parents to get ready. I wish I did this with my older daughter. It is so much fun and I think promotes a very good food philosophy. I also think that it is more natural. We started spoon feeding our babies when the recommendation was to start solids at 4 months, but now that it has been changed to 6 months, they are ready to learn how to eat and we can teach them these skills and healthy eating without the mush. Babies don't need processed and starchy cereal. And think about it, they weren't giving babies cereal before it became a fad in the 40's when it was marketed as a first food.

The last thing I want to add is that starting foods is scary just because it is so brand new for both of you, no matter how you choose to feed her. But it very quickly becomes less scary and so much fun. Like all baby things, the first time they do anything is scary and then it just becomes normal.

Please feel free to PM me with any more questions.

@Mae: My pediatrician agrees with you re: the choking risks and didn't recommend BLW until 9 months.

That said, we did give him things like bananas, puffs, avocados, and sweet potatoes. I just found BLW so limiting early on since there was very little that was soft enough for him to eat (I mean they can only gum so much without teeth) but hard enough for him to pick up. So I gave him mostly purees and the aforementioned finger foods. He is a fine eater now. I must admit that I was put off by some of BLW's scare tactics--that your child won't be a good eater if he is fed purees. I mean, with spoon feeding, I didn't force him to eat if he didn't want to so he had control over the experience, and it was (almost always) a happy experience. Also, with BLW, if you give them a smorgasboard of food they can choose from, doesn't this perhaps give them too much control? I don't know. I think there are positives and negatives to both approaches. He is now 12 months and eats anything.

@raintreebee: It's actually really impressive what a baby can gum when given the opportunity. DD gummed strips of meat (chicken, pork chop, etc) when she was 6 months old.

@littlejoy: that kid eats better than I do thanks for sharing, lots of good tips there.

@NeekieRose: I certainly may have underestimated him. He often spit things out that were harder at that age, but it may have been because he didn't like the texture at first.

One thing to consider in this conversation is whether you have caregivers that are comfortable with BLW. I didn't, so that also influenced my choice, and I wasn't going to select caregivers on this basis. If I was a SAHM, I might have been more adventurous.

@raintreebee: that is an important point! Daycare was willing to work with me on this, although they definitely broke her food into teeny-tiny pieces and spoon fed her things like yogurt and applesauce. I like to think the super small pieces helped develop her pincer grasp! Ha

@Mae: One thing I did that worked really well for my DD was to give her a whole peach/nectarine/pear with the peel taken off on one side. It gives them something to hold, but they are much less likely to bite off a piece like they might with a banana or slice of fruit. They tend to just gnaw on it, which my daughter really enjoyed, because it gave her control over it. Be prepared for a mess though!

@Mae: Ah, yeah that can be frustrating! When I first started I threw down a clean tablecloth under the highchair (a big one with a wide radius) and used the 5 second rule. Otherwise I would have wasted a lot of food at first

@babybean404: I didn't do any grains besides oatmeal until around 7(ish) month when her pincer grasp was getting better. Then I did organic puffs. She got the hang of self feeding those super fast and was(is) obsessed with them. Plus no choking concerns because they are little and meltable.

Remember that babies' gag reflexes are closer to the middle of their mouth - not at the back of the throat like adults.

Think of it this way: if you eat something with a texture you've NEVER experiences before, what do you do? Most of the time, I shudder or make a small gag sound. It's a reflex. It doesn't mean I'm choking on it - it means the texture or taste surprised me.

That's what our LOs go through when they start solid foods.