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gagging on soilds....? Ideas please....

kiarasam06
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Hello-
So Noah's ped said to try to start him on baby rice cereal. she said a taste here and there, well I do and when the spoon is on his lips he starts to gag. It's not even in his mouth yet and he is gagging. It's not every spoonful, but some. When I do get the cereal in and he tastes it he gags...??? its not thick at all, pretty running, but not too runny.... KWIM? I just dunno what the deal is....he had a swollow study and all is good there.
I have never seen a kid hate food as much as he does. it is sad. I see other kids and they eat great and I get kinda upset. not at noah, but in general,sometimes it is hard. I love him so much and just want the best for him. Ne way I am getting sidetracked.
Does ne one know why he is gagging so much...? ideas...people who have been there maybe?? after he gags I try maybe once more and then if he does it again, which he normally does we stop. He is only 5 months, so I am not too concerned about soilds....yet. But this is not a good start.
Thanks for ur advice.

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15 replies

JessicaK

Our son does exactly the same thing, he hates eating! It sucks and I feel like if this were 100 years ago he would not have survived. He is 4 months corrected, 7 actual and we tried a little rice cereal too in the hopes he may take it and get some extra calories.. Didn't work. He may just still be too young, and preemies tend to have a sensitive gag reflex. We are going to see a speech therapist because I think he may also have some degree of an oral aversion. He gags and chokes when anything enters his mouth, we really have to ease his bottle in. He even chokes on his own little fingers. It's sad (but sometimes a little cute cause he just keeps putting his little hands in there). We touch his mouth a lot and kiss him and try to create positive oral experiences. I hope the speech therapist can help, we haven't gone in yet, we have been waiting 2 months for an appt. Ill let you know if I find anything that helps.

katek

IMO, if he is gagging, he isn't ready. He is, after all, only 4 months adjusted, right? The standard recommendation for starting solids is 6 months according to the AAP. Developmentally, your child might not be ready until 6 months adjusted. If you keep giving a child food and the situation is unpleasant for him b/c he isn't developmentally ready, you can create a negative association with food, which can then become an oral aversion.

It isn't as though solids at that age are going to be nutritionally beneficial. Milk/formula is what baby needs at that age.

If anything, too much solid foods (cereal) can hinder milk consumption. If you do the math on the cereal to milk calories, you'll find that it is much easier for baby to get needed calories from milk b/c one has to eat a heck of a lot of cereal to make up for an ounce of milk. Cereal is filling so it tends to make baby full and not consume as much overall.

The 6-9 month period (adjusted for preemies) is about learning how to eat, not nutritional benefit. I have yet to see a study that shows that if a baby eats early, he or she will somehow become advanced developmentally in other areas of life.

And for what it is worth, I would not use a spoon to start feeding. Start by putting runny cereal on your finger and letting baby suck if off. Once baby masters that (and I would not attempt it more than once a day...even longer if baby has shown that he isn't ready), then move to putting runny cereal on a teething toy. Let baby lick it and get used to the flavor.

If baby can do both those things, then move to the spoon. NEVER EVER dump or scrap food into baby's mouth because it has been shown to CAUSE oral aversions. Hold spoon over the bottom lip, slightly over the tip of the tongue. IF baby is ready, he will extract the food from the spoon himself. Do not scrap dribbling food off the chin. It has been shown to cause oral aversion in empirical studies. Let baby make a huge mess. Clean baby when the meal is done. Mothers who are paranoid about messes make the meal unpleasant for baby. That can hinder the eating process. When baby turns one, he should be in a place where he doesn't mind making a huge mess with the cake. That will show that he has a good, fun relationship with his food.

kiarasam06

I am not in a rush, I was just concerned by his gagging. It was concerning. I know he has a bad gag reflux, but i thought this was kinda nuts and I know everyone on this board has BTDT and you all have great advice!! I will try when he is a bit older. hopefully he gets it.

Henrysmom

I agree with katek... he may not be ready yet. There are many reasons why he may gag when you offer the spoon - he's not ready, he doesn't like what you're giving him (I think my son was very sensitive to smells), or he doesn't like the spoon. Katek gave some great advice... definitely offer off your finger first. Once he's mastered that, then try the spoon. If he gags w/ the spoon, you can always try giving him a dry spoon (no food). My son is 20 months w/ oral aversions. He eats any solid you give him but refuses to eat purees or anything off a spoon. We have been giving him a dry spoon for several weeks. My son's drs believe that gagging is a sign of a physiological discomfort. For my son, its been reflux. At your son's young age, it could just be that he isn't ready. Definitely to do not force feed (which it doesn't sound like you're doing), but I thought I'd just throw that out there!

kiarasam06

Ya I am def. not making him eat soilds yet. The few times we have tried SOMETIMES he will suck it off, others he will not and just gag, so its weird I would think he would gag each time or not, KWIM? He has feeding issues---it is still VERY hard to get him to take his formula. He will take only 10mls or on a great feed 30mls. We have seen slp and they say everything is ok, but he doesn't want food, somethings HAS to be going on with him.....but no one can tell us what that is.

lchang4

Sorry, I don't have any advise but I'm dealing with solids issues too. One of my twins drinks really slow too. I'm just wondering if your baby drinks 10-30mL, how many times a day do you bottle feed him and how much does he take in 24 hours? Does he have a feeding tube?

kiarasam06

yes he ended up w/ a g tube bc he was slowly cutting down his volume. so now he gets around 21-23oz a day

mamaseeta

i think we have the same baby. it is THE WORST. we've had a horrible day so i'm really frustrated. was thinking of trying rice cereal tomorrow morning. i just want the "normal" baby that doesn't have to experience so many challenges and such pain. we just got the gtube last tuesday. i guess it's better..? but i just hate the whole idea of my child needing this
:(

katek

Excellent suggestion about letting baby play with the dry spoon, Henrysmom!

Our son's second nanny had a child who was a month older than our son's adjusted age. She refused being fed by her mother period. Her mother referred to her daughter as a "self-feeder." When we first met her, she was 11 months old. Apparently, she'd never been spoonfed b/c all attempts ended in failure. As a result, she never ate baby food purees. She was a little underweight when we first met her. But has she got older and the possiblities for solid foods had expanded, she put on a lot of weight by the time she was two and I suspect was either in the 50th percentile weight or higher by that point in time. She was not a preemie.

Henrysmom

mamaseeta, I completely understand how you feel... "i just want the "normal" baby that doesn't have to experience so many challenges and such pain." I can't tell you how many times I have felt the same way. And anytime I see a mom feeding her baby, I am sooo jealous! It's so frustrating that something as simple and innate as eating is so difficult for our little ones! Hugs to you!

kiarasam06

I am with you all also---On Halloween my sisters friends baby was just 2 months old and eating like a champ like 5 oz and here I am in the other room tubing my baby taking only 3.5oz at 5 months....it sucks at times. Not that I would change Noah for the world, I love him beyond what I thought I could, but at times "normal" would be great. :) It can def. be hard to see people with their babies and have the bonding over feeding, we never have. :( thats sad to me. I wish we could. Feeding is now MUCH easier and MUCH less of a battle, but he will cry sometimes when I try to get him to take a bottle. it sucks that he hates it so much. I really hope we can all get to our "normal" points soon, whatever that may be.

Henrysmom

katek, that's interesting about your friend's baby being a self feeder who never ate purees. You bring up a really good point that leads me to expand a bit on Henry's "spoon play." Obviously, for younger kids, this doesn't necessarily apply, but for Henry, who is over a year, it is important. Henry's "spoon play" is NOT self directed. It is VERY important for us to present and feed w/ the spoon. For Henry, it is about control... and this is one of the areas where we have to show that we, as parents, are in control of this part of his life. Henry WILL play w/ a spoon on his own, of course w/out food. Prior to "spoon play", he would never allow us to put a spoon in his mouth. That is why its so important that we are in control. He does get a reward each time he takes a "bite." We have special toys that are only available during spoon play... we take away the toy for each bite and as long as he complies, he gets the toy back. This control and sequence of events is what we expect to work when we finally start introducing food on the spoon (which BTW, we just started on Tues and its going well!). Eventually, this activity will become habit and eating purees will no longer be an issue!

For kiarasam06, I don't see that letting your son play w/ the spoon on his own would be an issue at his age. This should only help him become comfortable with the spoon. I would suggest though that you also direct the spoon on occassion, so he understands that the spoon may also come from you and not just be in his control! Our little ones are very strong willed and its amazing what control they can hold onto once they get older!

kiarasam06

We will try that. He grabbed it the other day and I let him have it....he never made it to his mouth tho. lol never thought it would be this hard.

lchang4

My twin B with very little appetite will only take a few spoonfuls of purees only. She's also wanting control, always want to grab the spoon from me and feed herself. I usually give her 2 spoons, one in each hand already dipped with purees, hoping that she'll put them in her mouth. And when she opens her mouth to put an empty spoon in, I would sneak in a spoonful. Is this bad? Should I not do this?

Henrysmom

Ichang4, I'm not a specialist, but going on what I have learned w/ my son, I would think that what you're doing is ok as long as she is not reacting badly to it. I think it would be fine to give her a spoon too, as long as she "allows" you to also feed her. If she's spits out what you give her or vomits in response, then I would stop and get the advice of a feeding therapist.

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