Choking and Gagging

Not an S&M post, still in the realms of baby led weaning, sorry.

Honestly, the choking situation is a worry.

I think I'm probably a fairly laid back parent but at the sound of my little one making a choking noise as he eats I feel my heart beating faster and I tense in preparation for turning him upside down and patting him firmly on the back in a baby heimlich.

But, following DH's excellent example I sit quietly and try not to look worried or even send The Boy subconscious Mother to Baby worry vibes.

When G and I are feeding him we both pretend that we are not worried and yet are secretly wondering which of us will crack first and whip the offending food item out of his little mouth.

And the thing is, The Boy doesn't care at all, he makes his chokey noise, sometimes a bit ducklike and sometimes a lot of coughing and he either brings the food back to the front of his mouth and spits it out or he swallows it... then he smiles like he's done something clever, which I suppose he has.

He's not at all traumatised and he always goes in for some more - I notice that after he has a big mouthful of food he often stops and sucks his fingers for a while to let it go down before weighing in again.

At the moment it is scary for me but I'm trying to bear in mind that this is the very early days of The Boy learning to do something new.

It seems from what I have seen The Boy doing so far, that he has the instinct to chew his food already and I want him to give him the opportunity to practice and strengthen that skill with blw. And most importantly he obviously has a very strong instinct and knows exactly what to do when he feels overwhelmed by a big lump of food. The reality is that he is not choking at all, just gagging as he learns how to deal with the food.

From what I've read of other people's experiences with this two things happen; one is that I will get more hardened to hearing those noises and two, he will very quickly develop all the skills he needs with respect to chewing and swallowing and learning how to eat and the gagging will get less.

So check back with me in a couple of weeks and I'll let you know!