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It sounds like he's really ready to actually eat! Yes, I would go ahead and offer some small pieces that he can learn how to gum/chew. For a pear, making small little cubes of a very ripe pear might be great. Or things like puffs that dissolve easily.

I did BLW with both my kids. My first never choked or took big bites but my second....I've been down his windpipe a few times! Maybe an overreaction but I got freaked out. Hes a hoover. Could you serve things that disintegrate instead of break up? Example: toast with avocado smashed in instead of chunks of avocado, or a pork roast cooked in the crock pot and shredded into small pieces. Or alternatively a big slice of meat that he can suck on but not swallow? Like chicken breast cut lengthwise or beef roast. Or puree food and just put a glop on his tray and let him eat it with his fingers? Once he gets his pincer grasp you can go to smaller pieces.

I'm not a baby-feeding expert :), but I didn't see anything concerning in your description of your experience so far. Can you say more about what you are worried about? That he is gagging? That he isn't swallowing as much as you expect? Something else?

We did BLW with both kids. LO1 figured out chewing and swallowing within a month or so, although I have a vague memory of making various special things for him (like broccoli fritters, for example.)

With LO2, we just give her some of our regular food, sometimes its soft and sometimes its pretty hard to chew, the size of the piece varies a lot. She has been much slower to pick up eating--she had more gagging to start with, tends to collect food in her mouth, and chews a lot but often pushes the food back out--although it seems like it's more her than what we give her. She's 11 months and still pushes out/drops half of what we give her on a good day. But she's healthy and happy, though, so I don't worry about it too much.

I felt exactly the same way that you feel. It is scary! But your LO is doing what he needs to do. Learning to eat is pretty difficult, so he's just going through that process. He'll get more skilled at it soon and it will become less scary.

@FliegepilzHut: They definitely develop their own techniques of picking things up. My DD was really early on the pincer grasp so she could pick them up really well from really early on. Before that she would just grasp at it with her whole hand and mush/squeeze it in her hands, move her hand to her mouth and the sort of stuff it in her mouth lick it from her hands. Very messy but totally worked! My son had a lot more teeth and he was better at chewing/nibbling things off from say a piece of bread/toast etc. Both loved millet balls since they just disolve in their mouths

DH was totally on board with BLW until we actually started it. I swear he's probably had 5 heart attacks so far and we've only been at it for less then a month. Reading a BLW book has helped a LOT, that and taking a CPR class! haha But I have seen him sit on his hands a couple times. The thing about the gagging is that its a good thing. Its teaching them that they can not fit that big chunk of food down their throat and they need to chew it first. Honestly, Im a bit hesitant sometimes too but Ive seen so many youtube videos of 9, 10, 11 month olds eating blueberries, apples, etc and I think "my baby is just as smart as them. there is no reason he can't figure this out too!" that makes me feel better about the whole thing

BLW did NOT work for us. AT ALL. So we went to purees. I still don't get it, so through deductive reasoning I assume it just doesn't work for every kid.

I was too scared to do BLW, so we did purees and put larger pieces in a mesh feeder to expose him to some different tastes. We started with puffs as finger foods since they melt in your mouth and LO figured out that they would stick to his fingers so he learned to pick them up that way! Then when I was comfortable with him eating those we pretty much gave him everything in bite size pieces.

My seven month old really hates purees - she eats them, but she keeps trying to stick her hands in the bowl and feed herself. The problem is, she has two sharp little teeth, so whatever I've given her, she bites off scary big chunks she can't chew, and I have to swoop in and take them away. She's even chewed off bits of raw carrot. The only things that worked until recently were really hard bread, and whole peeled apples and pears with a piece cut off - she latches onto the cut off side and starts scraping bits off with her teeth She's just gotten better at chewing stuff with her gums now, so we're working on giving soft cooked veggies and tiny bits of soft bread.