Answer: It could be that he’s reacting to the texture of the food, has a particularly sensitive gag reflex or is just taking a little while to adjust to the skill of transferring food to the back of his tongue and then swallowing. I would think that if he’s not had any problems so far with feeding and is thriving and meeting his milestones then this is an issue which will resolve with time and practice. Very soft, pureed, mushy and liquid foods are ideal as a first stage. Rice cereal very diluted with breast milk, formula or water offered after milk is the recommendation. Try to only offer him a little amount. This could be an issue of volume and if he’s over full from a milk feed then his stomach may simply not be able to accommodate any more in it. So you may want to experiment with the timing of when you offer him solids and see if this makes a difference.
Another alternative is to think about seeing your early childhood nurse and seeing if a referral to a speech pathologist would be necessary. Although this sounds a little premature at this stage, the issue with offering solids is that timing is the key to success and by seven months we really want to see babies accepting solids. Deferring it past this “window of time” can influence a delay in the baby’s interest and it makes it very difficult then for them to transition towards eating more lumpy and textured foods.
Very rarely, there is an issue with the baby being able to swallow properly but I would think that unless there has been concerns with him to date, this is highly unlikely.
Cheers and hope these ideas help.
Jane