Hi everybody ~ I'm looking for feeding suggestions for my 11 1/2 month old son. He's been eating Kix cereal and Cheerios, and those little puffed learning foods for a couple of months now, but as we try to introduce "real foods" he gags a lot. At first my husband and I thought he was choking and it freaked us out, but now we realize he just has an overactive gag reflex when it comes to eating or something. We've even tried really soft foods like scrambled eggs, little pieces of potato and small pieces of macaroni & cheese, etc., and he'll maybe eat a piece or two, and then he gags really badly...sometimes to the point that he throws up. It's making us nervous about introducing new foods, and he doesn't seem interested anymore, except in his Gerber foods. Any ideas would be much appreciated!
I think I had a buddy on one of the message boards I visit who had a son that does the same thing. I think it's an overactive pallat or something. You could talk to your doctor and maybe there are therapy sessions you can do to make it less sensitive. Maybe he just doesn't like the foods too. You could hold off another month and try it again-shrug. I'd check with your doctor because your son is at the age where he should be able to handle the foods you're giving, especially when they are little bits.
Maybe it's a texture thing for him right now. You could put everything through a food mill for now and just try the chunks of food again in a couple of weeks. I used the Kidco one and it works great: http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Co-Food-Mill-Tote/dp/B00028LVHQ You can mix some yougurt in with the food to thin it out a bit and make it creamier. I did mixed veggies with chicken and yougurt a lot for my son. It was always a pleaser. He may also like fruit smoothies.
Also, have you tried biter biscuits or graham crackers? It might be fun for him to hold the cracker and gnaw off the mushy edges.
My son does the same thing with any new texture and he's a week away from being 1. My suggestion is just to try try again. It takes us about 10-12 tries to get him to accept new things, but once he does, he doesn't look back. We recently got him to take noodles and now he loves them. Start with absolutely tiny pieces and if he seems to not like the texture, slather them with some of the pureed fruit that he's used to. Also, always put a few pieces of whatever you are trying on his tray. My son seems to take to the new food better if he can try it at his own pace. We're still working on fruit chunks here! Good luck!