My child is having difficulty with eating, drinking and swallowing

Introducing new tastes and textures to your baby needs to be fun.

Wait until your baby is about 6 months old before introducing solid foods.

Your child is ready for solid foods when they can sit up and hold their head up, and when they can reach and grab food with their hands and take it to their mouth.

If you think your child is ready for solid foods before they are 5 months old, or they are not showing readiness after they are 7 months old, please speak to your Health Visitor.

Please click on the following links for advice and guidance:

Moving Onto Lumpy Food Textures

Your baby will show that they are ready to move onto lumpy food textures when they are sitting up, holding their head steady, taking their hands and food to their mouth, and managing smooth puree well.

Tips:

Offer your baby foods at the same time as the rest of the family. This helps your baby to learn that eating is fun and enjoyable. Your baby will be able to watch and learn.
Your baby should always be in a supported sitting position when trying foods. A high chair will help to support your baby.
Begin by gradually thickening the puree that your baby is already eating. You can do this by adding baby rice/cereal or mashed potato. Gradually increase to a thicker texture before adding any lumps. Next begin to leave some small, soft lumps in the food. Try gradually blending less, and fork mashing. Babies have hard gums which can squash soft lumps well. Foods that fork mash well include soft cooked root vegetables such as carrots and sweet potato and ripe banana and avocado.
Introduce changes slowly. Introduce one new thing at a time.
Try offering a small serving of a new food at the beginning of the meal when your baby is hungry. If your baby is sick, only a small amount is going to come up. You could try offering a new food alongside a food your baby already enjoys, giving one spoon of the new food and then a spoon of the familiar food.
Let your baby explore. It is helpful to let your baby touch and play with their food. This might get messy but it is an important part of learning. Resist the urge to wipe your baby’s hands and mouth too quickly. Wait until the end of the meal.
Your baby might be finding it hard to take lumpy textures from a spoon. Try putting a small amount onto a plate in front of your baby. Your baby may prefer to pick up and eat some of the food using their hands. This helps your baby to feel in control. When spoon feeding, let your baby hold their own spoon too.
You can introduce some melt -in-the-mouth finger foods. Always try these yourself first, to check that they melt and dissolve in the mouth easily, without the need for chewing.
You might want to move on to try soft finger foods such as fingers of ripe banana/avocado/peeled pear or fingers of soft cooked carrots/sweet potato/ squash.
Be patient and keep trying. Your baby might need to try a new food lots of times before accepting it. Do not try new foods when your baby is tired nor when you are in a rush. You need to have time to keep calm and to make it fun.
Always supervise your baby when they are eating. This is to make sure they are safe when swallowing food.

My Baby is Gagging

It is normal for babies to gag when they are learning to eat a lumpy texture. Babies might gag to move lumps back to the mouth for more chewing. Keep calm when this happens and reassure your baby that it is ok. Your baby will need lots of practise.

Further useful information can be found here:

Weaning - Start for Life - NHS

My Child is Gagging

It is normal for babies to gag when they are learning to eat a new food texture. Babies might gag as they get used to the feeling of a new texture. Babies sometimes gag to move the food from the back to the front of the mouth for more chewing. Gagging is a normal reflex action and it is there to help prevent choking.

Gagging is not the same as choking. Please click on the following link to learn more about recognising gagging and how it is different to choking: Choking and Gagging on Food - Start for Life - NHS

If your baby gags whilst learning to eat, keep calm and reassure your baby that it is ok.

Gagging will reduce as your baby explores more textures with their mouth. Allow them to explore their fingers and different toys with their mouth. Let them have fun touching a squishing their food with their hands and putting the food to their mouth themselves. Let your baby hold their own spoon. They will need to learn how to put the spoon to their mouth themselves.

Further information that might be helpful can be found above in the 'Moving Onto Lumpy Food Textures' section.