IS BABY LED WEANING A CHOKING RISK?

July 30, 2020 /

Written by Caroline Meyer

The recommendation for starting to introduce babies to solids is at around 4 to 6 months. There is a new approach, called baby-led weaning which calls for allowing babies to feed themselves instead of spoon-feeding soft purees. This calls for giving them soft foods they can squeeze against their palate and allowing them to eat or not eat as they choose. Many people are concerned that this form of feeding leads to a high risk of choking in infants.  Giving finger foods to babies does have some concerns and it is important that the right foods are presented in a way that makes it easy for babies to eat it without it being a choking hazard. 

Baby-led weaning has many perks such as: 

  • Baby can sit at the table with everyone else during mealtimes 
  • Self-feeding allows for improved dexterity 
  • It’s a lot less expensive than store bought purees 
  • It has the potential to stop picky eating 
  • It is less stressful on the adults 
  • It allows your baby to eat as much as they need and stop when full 
  • They are likely to get a lot more nutrition from whole foods 
  • There is no processing or addition of sugar, chemicals and colourants 
  • May reduce obesity due to overfeeding 

Studies have been done showing that while baby-led weaners are more likely to gag in the beginning, they are on par with babies that ate pureed food by the time they were 18 months old. When it came to choking however, there was no actual difference at any age.  Gagging is not the same as choking. Gagging is not that much of a concern and actually prevents choking. The gagging action allows the food to move from the back of the mouth to the front so that it can be processed further or be spat out so that only particles that are small enough to be swallowed without risk of choking are allowed at the back of the throat.  Eating real foods at an earlier age when the gag reflex is further forward in the mouth actually reduces the risk of choking. Most of the time gagging is followed by further chewing and then swallowing without choking. While parents are often concerned by this, the gagging is actually a natural reaction and shouldn’t be a concern. Choking however is something quite different. This is when the airway becomes blocked by a piece of food preventing the flow of air. This is often from a circular pieced of a hard food and not from small pieces or mashed up foods.  To prevent the risk of choking, there are a few things you can do: 

Let your baby pick up the food and put it in their mouths by themselves. When food is placed in the mouth by someone else it can be placed too far back on the tongue and not allow for adequate chewing before swallowing. Never leave your baby to eat unsupervised. While gagging is often noisy, choking is usually silent. Be on hand to keep an eye on your baby so that you can react immediately in the event of a blockage. Make sure your little one is in a suitable highchair that keeps them upright and that they cannot slip out of. Unless you have a baby that climbs out of the highchair, don’t buckle them in. This will allow you to grab the baby out in a hurry if you need to. 

Make sure that foods are thinly sliced or cut. Food should be about half the width of your baby’s fingernails. Don’t give whole round items, rather cut them into quarters. This includes nuts, grapes, cherries and so forth. For harder foods cut them in to longer, thin strips so baby can hold and break pieces off as they eat. Where possible choose soft foods such as steamed veggies and even fruits that can be mashed up in the mouth. Hard apples are one of the most commonly choked on foods. If you want to offer apple, steam thinly sliced, peeled pieces. When baby is older you can grate hard foods such as carrot and apple before offering it to your little one. Make eating time about eating and nothing else. Allow them to focus on what they are doing and not have any other distractions. For your own peace of mind, you might also want to take a CPR class that deals with choking in infants so you can deal with it if it should ever arise. Test the foods you offer your baby to ensure they can be mashed against the roof of the mouth easily before serving to your little one.