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While I've never experienced anything quite like this with any of my own 4 kids, I have experienced something similar with one of the children I've kept and it was very frustrating.
First mom and dad denied he was having any problems, then finally later admitted he had been doing the same at home. Second his gagging and puking was affecting his weight, and he was tiny to begin with and their doctor was basically useless. Third, there was no consistency in what he gagged on or under what circumstances so it was something you just couldn't avoid.
To make a long story short...he had issues with reflux and colic as a baby, then seemed to have outgrown that issue. Then later he began to gag and puke quite often. although a little older than 9 months, he was actually 3 years old when it all started.
He'd go 2 weeks without any incident, then he'd gag on all sorts of textures and tastes for a solid month. It could be jarred food or things like cheerios or saltines. It could be soft foods like applesauce or mashed potatoes. Or it might be green beans or baked chicken.
The only thing I found that was somewhat consistent was breakfast. Often it didn't matter what he was given for breakfast, he'd gag on it. I tried baby cereal, dry cheerios, pancakes, waffles, and eggs. More often than not he'd gag and puke. After dealing with this for a month, I told mom I was done offering him breakfast. It was far more stress on him to try to eat it than was worth whatever tiny amount he absorbed.
I won't go into detail about the doctor, let's just say that he diagnosed all kinds of things that were never affected by his prescribed treatment, so it never had an impact on what was happening. Also he often gave quite conflicting advice from one visit to the next.
My belief is that he never truly learned to eat the right way. Jarred/pureed food is given to babies, not for nutrition, but to help them begin to learn to use their tongues correctly. While they are sucking on a bottle/nipple their tongue is used completely differently than it is for eating. While they are experiencing the different use of their tongues, they also learn to swallow differently. Next comes learning to chew and swallow accordingly. All these things have to be taught/experienced in order to move to the next step.
Though it's somewhat hard to explain.......I believe that this boy didn't get the opportunity to learn the right steps and that in turn his body wasn't able to retain the memory of what it was supposed to do regarding tongue use, chewing and swallowing. He was 4 when he finally seemed to get a handle on eating without difficulty.
So a long way around to the advice.....give him the chance to learn how to use his tongue differently by giving him other textures and flavors of food besides jarred/pureed and let him work slowly through the gag reaction. If he's gagging on the flavors, then you should be able to figure that out by offering other 'sweet' items. Perhaps he would like a real banana or real strawberry. Also, try other fruits that don't need teeth to chew if you think it's the sweetness or give him the fruit puffs like another poster suggested. Try him with a vanilla wafer or the soft baby cookies. If it's the sweetness, he will eat some of these things.
Be sure to encourage him to feed himself so that he begins to distinguish between being fed and feeding himself. This in turn will give him some control over his food, which is a good step to the goal of independence!
If you find that sweet is not the draw, then try all kinds of other things like avacado, broccoli, carrots, or peas and saltines, club crackers, veggie crackers or cheerios and ham, vienna sausage, roasted chicken or breakfast sausage and see what happens. Just keep trying and I imagine the gagging will lessen as he learns how to use his tongue in the most proficient manner and when he no longer associates food with gagging, he will be more willing to try new textures/flavors and this hump will be behind you.
I tried to stay away from sweet foods with our baby boys. I always thought that they would have plenty of time later on to eat fresh fruits and sweet things... and milk actually has a lot of sugar in it, whether it's formula or breastmilk. I wanted to make sure they got used to eating things like cereal, whole grains, and veggies first. My boys went from nursing, to nursing and eating mashed-up brown rice cereal diluted with breast milk, and mashed up roasted vegetables. You can buy baby food mills that help you mash up foods for them, or just use a blender or a fork. After they were used to that, I started mashing up roasted chicken, and mixing that in with the rice cereal. By the time they were around 10 months old, they were eating whatever we were eating, just mostly mashed up or at least cooked until it was really soft. I hardly ever spoon fed my boys, either. I always let them have at it. They loved getting their fingers all into it and feeling it. We didn't normally use high chairs, so meals were always messy - but fun!
I remember steaming broccoli, until it was pretty soft, and letting them eat that. I kept the stems long on it so they would hold that part and stuff the tops in their face and chew on it. They loved that.
Also when they were teething, I'd keep mashed veggies in the freezer, in just the right-size containers, then at mealtime pull them out and let my babies gum and chew on the frozen mashed veggies. The cold seemed to numb the pain of teething, while - I was hoping, anyway - they were getting some nutrients from the veggies. There's just no way around it - babies are messy!
While I've never experienced anything quite like this with any of my own 4 kids, I have experienced something similar with one of the children I've kept and it was very frustrating.
First mom and dad denied he was having any problems, then finally later admitted he had been doing the same at home. Second his gagging and puking was affecting his weight, and he was tiny to begin with and their doctor was basically useless. Third, there was no consistency in what he gagged on or under what circumstances so it was something you just couldn't avoid.
To make a long story short...he had issues with reflux and colic as a baby, then seemed to have outgrown that issue. Then later he began to gag and puke quite often. although a little older than 9 months, he was actually 3 years old when it all started.
He'd go 2 weeks without any incident, then he'd gag on all sorts of textures and tastes for a solid month. It could be jarred food or things like cheerios or saltines. It could be soft foods like applesauce or mashed potatoes. Or it might be green beans or baked chicken.
The only thing I found that was somewhat consistent was breakfast. Often it didn't matter what he was given for breakfast, he'd gag on it. I tried baby cereal, dry cheerios, pancakes, waffles, and eggs. More often than not he'd gag and puke. After dealing with this for a month, I told mom I was done offering him breakfast. It was far more stress on him to try to eat it than was worth whatever tiny amount he absorbed.
I won't go into detail about the doctor, let's just say that he diagnosed all kinds of things that were never affected by his prescribed treatment, so it never had an impact on what was happening. Also he often gave quite conflicting advice from one visit to the next.
My belief is that he never truly learned to eat the right way. Jarred/pureed food is given to babies, not for nutrition, but to help them begin to learn to use their tongues correctly. While they are sucking on a bottle/nipple their tongue is used completely differently than it is for eating. While they are experiencing the different use of their tongues, they also learn to swallow differently. Next comes learning to chew and swallow accordingly. All these things have to be taught/experienced in order to move to the next step.
Though it's somewhat hard to explain.......I believe that this boy didn't get the opportunity to learn the right steps and that in turn his body wasn't able to retain the memory of what it was supposed to do regarding tongue use, chewing and swallowing. He was 4 when he finally seemed to get a handle on eating without difficulty.
So a long way around to the advice.....give him the chance to learn how to use his tongue differently by giving him other textures and flavors of food besides jarred/pureed and let him work slowly through the gag reaction. If he's gagging on the flavors, then you should be able to figure that out by offering other 'sweet' items. Perhaps he would like a real banana or real strawberry. Also, try other fruits that don't need teeth to chew if you think it's the sweetness or give him the fruit puffs like another poster suggested. Try him with a vanilla wafer or the soft baby cookies. If it's the sweetness, he will eat some of these things.
Be sure to encourage him to feed himself so that he begins to distinguish between being fed and feeding himself. This in turn will give him some control over his food, which is a good step to the goal of independence!
If you find that sweet is not the draw, then try all kinds of other things like avacado, broccoli, carrots, or peas and saltines, club crackers, veggie crackers or cheerios and ham, vienna sausage, roasted chicken or breakfast sausage and see what happens. Just keep trying and I imagine the gagging will lessen as he learns how to use his tongue in the most proficient manner and when he no longer associates food with gagging, he will be more willing to try new textures/flavors and this hump will be behind you.
Good luck and keep on trying!
thank you so much for the advice. I'm definitely going to let him have more control of his food even if it him just playing with it. Eventually like the teething biscuit he will put it in his mouth.
Well as an update my little boy is becoming less picky and will actually eat more than strawberry and banana baby food. He still likes sweet stuff but he did eat earth's best sweet potato cinnamon bisque (babys first soup) which had chicken in it. So that was a good break through since he wasnt to fond of any meat or veggie. Also the gerber graduate puffs he loves. He started licking them and then i put them inside his mouth ont he side of his cheek and he was content to gum them. And now he picks them up himself and chews them. So horray From now on i will definitely trust my instinct and will not force anything on him. He keeps proving to me that wen he is ready to do something he will do it. I just have to provide him with the opportunity. Oh he also like the gerber yogurt melts. I like both these gerber products becomes they dissolve in his mouth within seconds.
At 9 months isn't he eating more table foods? I know things have changed since my kids were born but by 9 months they were almost 100% on table foods. They loved about everything.
100% on table foods? The main source of a baby's nutrition until they are one is breast milk or formula.
I have two children, ages 8 and 10 and they'll eat just about everything healthy I offer them except for tofu (my husband won't eat it either so I don't force the issue). I think it has a lot to do with how my pediatrician suggested that I introduce food to them.
She had me introduce veggies and other non-sweet food first. So we started out giving them pureed veggies. I would prepare them myself by steaming organic vegetables, putting them in a blender to puree them (adding a bit of water if necessary) and freezing them in ice cube trays. This was a lot more cost effective than buying baby food, plus I didn't have to worry about additives.
After they were used to the veggies, I would boil chicken breasts, cut them into tiny pieces and puree and freeze them as well. Of course as they got older, I stopped pureeing them and would just give them itty bitty pieces.
I introduced fruit last, making homemade applesauce and just mashing banannas with a fork. I waited a bit on strawberries because I had ready that many children are allergic to them.
Once it came time for table foods, my pediatrician told me that it can take up to 10 experiences with a particular food before a child will get accustomed to it and want to eat it. So, if a child rejected something I would just wait and introduce it again later.
Eventually, they grew to like most healthy foods. In fact for her last birthday my youngest asked me to make her salmon and broccoli for her special birthday dinner. My oldest requested homemade pasta with fresh basil, mozerella and cherry tomatoes.
I hope this helps. I think it's important to get children used to eating a variety of foods because of the nutritional benefits this provides. Plus, I never wanted to be one of those parents that cook separate meals (i.e. mac and cheese and chicken nuggets) for their kids because they're "pickey eaters" and won't eat what the rest of the family is having.
So we started out giving them pureed veggies. I would prepare them myself by steaming organic vegetables, putting them in a blender to puree them (adding a bit of water if necessary) and freezing them in ice cube trays. This was a lot more cost effective than buying baby food, plus I didn't have to worry about additives.
Plus, they taste a lot better! Have you tasted some of the stuff in those jars? Yech, I wouldn't want to eat it either! I would suggest that if you want to continue more with purees, to try making some yourself instead of buying jars.
They have something called a food grinder (you can get it at Babies R Us and maybe even Target and Walmart. You can grind up the foods that your having for dinner for them. The jar meats are horrible!
My oldest had a feeding and sensory issues for nearly 4 years where he would eat nothing but the banana baby food. There are so many things out there to help parents out now with stuff like this. Vibrating teethers, nuk brushes, food grinder are just 3 things that have become permanant staples in our home with kids under a year old.
Encourage him like crazy to play with food and lick it off his hands. Get creative and have fun with it!
They have something called a food grinder (you can get it at Babies R Us and maybe even Target and Walmart. You can grind up the foods that your having for dinner for them. The jar meats are horrible!
My oldest had a feeding and sensory issues for nearly 4 years where he would eat nothing but the banana baby food. There are so many things out there to help parents out now with stuff like this. Vibrating teethers, nuk brushes, food grinder are just 3 things that have become permanant staples in our home with kids under a year old.
Encourage him like crazy to play with food and lick it off his hands. Get creative and have fun with it!
Thanks. He sure does like to play and lick his food. it was just frustrating that he wouldnt put any of it in his mouth or if he did it would come right back out. But now hes entered another phase and mommy and baby are both happen with his self feeding
Look at this rejection of ready made baby foods as a blessing in disguise. You may get the chance now to get him eating real food.
In this change over try and feed him with other people eating as well.Just pretend the real goal is feeding yourself and others so breaking the cycle of pressure on him. Keep the foods soft and easy to swallow. Like have a few slices of banana out for him on his tray while you eat. Another time tiny blobs of mince and mashed potato/carrot mix put on tiny thin toast squares, or a really mini plate of spaghetti. Always announce it as in case "boybaby" feels like eating. Once he restarts eating such unpressured "side trays" you can return to normal feeding. Just make sure the only drink he gets outside of his breastfeed/formula quota is water and fruit juice only occasionaly when it ends up in place of a serve of fruit. My kids ate, then got too busy to eat much and then ate again. I might have made them eat a bit of everything as toddlers, but the most important rule was not to fuss if eating little and not to run a snack bar. Eventually there comes the daywhen they get hungry at mealtimes and for regular food
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Here's what our pediatrician recommended
