Normal or not?

[Courtniko]

DD is 6 months old, and has shown all of the ready signs for BLW.  A few days ago we gave her a long slice of avocado for her first attempt at solids/BLW.  Totally BF up till then, and had BF about 30 minutes before this.  She played with it a bit, then put it in her mouth and broke a piece off.  She kind of chomped on it, then I guess it went to the back of her mouth, she coughed a few times, then proceeded to projectile vomit the piece of avocado and a whole lot of the BM from her earlier feeding.  She projectile vomited 3 or 4 times.
Is this normal at all?  I am so freaked out now!

[flockofmoosen]

That's quite a reaction! My little sister used to do this all the time. The first tickle in her throat and she just let it all come out. Once she did it at a restaurant and my parents were so embarrassed. She eventually outgrew it but I don't remember how long it took.

[bootsorhearts]

Totally normal. They have very sensitive gag reflexes at first (think how you were in the 1st tri haha!). But they will outgrow it really quickly. You can try doing solids before milk for a little while. There will still be gagging but hopefully less mess.

[somerandomchick]

Gagging and puking everywhere is totally normal. And nasty.

When we were letting our young BLWer eat around our families, when she was gagging my MIL was watching her like a hawk thinking she's choking... DH and I were watching like a hawk ready with the napkins or bib to catch the vomit.

[Courtniko]

Thanks! I knew that gagging was normal, but I was not prepared for the throw up. Good to know that it is normal.

[rockiesnugget]

I think projectile puking isn't normal. Gagging is normal and there are some videos on You Tube that show the difference between gagging and choking that are useful.

[speedymarie]

Yeah, their gag reflexes are strong so that they don't choke. I agree with pp to do solids first so there is less mess until she gets the hang of it a bit.

[somerandomchick]

The risk with doing solids first is that if baby hasn't had any milk they may be too hungry to want to "play" (with food). May take some trial and error.

[Courtniko]

Feb 19, 2015 0:17:24 GMT -5 somerandomchick said:

The risk with doing solids first is that if baby hasn't had any milk they may be too hungry to want to "play" (with food). May take some trial and error.

Maybe there is a happy medium, like an hour plus after eating? She generally eats every 2 to 2.5 hours.