14 Month Old Has TEXTURE AVERSION -Doc Says Normal. Anyone Gone Through This?

Hi. My daughter was just like this when she was little. I can remember giving her Cheerios to try as finger food and she would not know what to do with them and get them to the back of her tongue and start gagging and then throw up. She did out grow it... but she does still have a very delicate gag reflex and doesn't like to have Xrays done at the dentist and won't swallow pills. Otherwise, though, whe's fine. When she was little, I just would wait a while (a week or so)and try again to see if she was doing better about the gagging and then finally, she was OK with it. I forget exactly how old she was by then but she did get over it by 1 1/2 at the most.

Hi M.,
At 14 months I would not worry too much about it - especially if his doctor says its ok. He is still getting the nutrients he needs from your breast milk and the pureed food. Let him explore food on his own terms (this can be messy, but try to just let him do it!). Maybe even put him in his highchair and let him finger paint or texture play with food. Some of it will end up in his mouth. Have you tried oatmeal with banana mashed in? You can get it an even consistency but a little thicker than pureed food. Also, have you tried letting him chew on food through one of those teething nets? you put a piece of apple or carrot inside the net bag and let him suck or chew on it and you do not have to worry about choking. Good luck.

Hi M.,
My name is C. and I too have a miracle baby...his name is William and he was born premature 29 weeks with all that goes with that. He was in the NICU for 11 weeks and during that time he was intubated and on a feed tube. The nurses removed and reinserted a new tube at least once a day. As a result of this, he has had an extremely difficult time with gag reflex during feeding. Now this primarly became a big issue when introducing chuckier foods to him. We have received support of feeding therapy via the "We Care Center for Children" which is a government funded program for infant-36 months. The center is located in Concord, however they have therapists that come to your home and work with you and your child. We Care has been a godsend to our family and has helped my husband and I work with our son and help him realize his strength and potential. We have William in an 'early intervention' school four mornings a week where he is given speech therapy, occupational therapy, not to mention the positive peer pressure for the other kids. I don't know if this has helped you at all, but I am hoping it has. Please let me know if you have anymore questions....Good luck to you. Oh, and the oatmeal and yogurt....Will gagged at first and now they are his morning staple...It is all about consistency in introducing the food.

As for tactile issues, my son wouldn't hold our hand and was very sensitive about his face. Now, he reaches for my hand when asked and even when not. I know it seems overwelming and exhausting, but it does get easier and they begin to relax. Again, the occcupational therapy we have received through We Care has made these great strides easier. Plus, they give the parents such great tools for you to work with your child with less frustration.

Best of luck to you, C.

My daughter has been the same...I just kept introducing foods to her. She still spits things out and we just keep trying. She was also vomiting a lot...so I took her to a pediatric gastrointerologist and he thought she might have acid reflux. He gave me a prescription for something really mild and she hasn't thrown up since...might want to check with your doctor about the vomitting. Hope this helps!

Hi M.,
If my son was tired and he ate, he would vomit. If he had a cold and ate, he would vomit. If he forgot to chew, he would vomit. If he cries and gets too upset, he vomits. For many months it seemed as if every day included vomit. He coughs and gags and chokes, then vomits. While the whole thing lasts 5-10 seconds, it was scary for us and is probably scary for you too. We think our son just has a more sensitive gag reflex than most and really had to learn how to deal with different textures.

He's nearly three now and it rarely happens. I won't say he's outgrown it, because if I do I'm sure it will happen again.

As a side note, I recently read (SF Chronicle) a travel article about two moms, one American and one French, and their babies traveling together. One of the points of the article was that each culture feeds babies different foods at different ages. The French mother would only serve pureed foods until her child was at least two. A bit different from our general attitudes here.

Good luck!

My son was doing something similar around 10 months. Have you tried letting him play with the food with his hands? My son started to try more foods when I let him try to feed himself. He never did the projectile vomiting though. I also noticed that my son is more averse to foods if he is teething. What does he do when you offer food off your plate? Maybe he'll be more interested if it's your food. At this point, my son gets upset if he can't try what I'm eating.

My son preferred the pureed jar food until he was close to 2. My son, however, did love to chew on frozen bagel pieces (helps with the teething pains). Also, I mashed up (not too much), different fruits and left them on his tray to play with, along with some baby cherrios, and some ended up in his mouth. If the pediatrician isn't worried about it, I say don't worry. Just keep trying. I don't know how you feel about sugary/salty products, but I know I gave my son a tiny piece of a crumbly cookie and he went for it. I also tried tiny pieces of potato chip. He loved those, so I knew he could eat lumpy stuff. It was a matter of waiting it out and continuing to try. Good luck!

My now 31 year old son was a lot like you describe when he was a youngster. As he grew older he limited his food to a few carbohydrates and almost no sources of protein. He survived on milk products, peanut butter, bread and pasta. He too would find the one errant piece of ground beef in the pasta sauce and spit it out. The doctor suggested starving him when he was three years old to the point where he would eat anything we gave him (or so the theory went) but this could not last longer than 3 days. Well, as you can imagine, he won......and his diet remained the same. He had problems with mild anemia at 18 months and still gags if the "wrong kind" of food is in his mouth. He still has a diet of 80% or more carbohydrates, has had several bouts with kidney stones (the first one at 18 and they are all the calcium from the emphasis on dairy products) is grossly overweight and was found to have learning disabilities when he got to elementary school. I don`t know if this will help you or discourage you, but my son was never able to change this texture aversion to most foods and his health has never been as good as I know it could have been. I too made him special meals each night and we tried consulting allergists, put him on goat`s milk and took him off wheat, you name it.... So, hang in there and keep trying to introduce the new foods and do your homework to assure that your child gets the balance of food groups he needs. My son has a good life, he has two children and a wonderful wife, excelled at sports, etc. but never will meet his potential physically. With all the advancements in diet, etc. coming out in the medical world all the time, and the fact that your doctor says not to worry, you may be worrying for nothing. Your child may very well grow out of this with no issues what so ever. Good luck and enjoy every day - they really do grow up way too fast.

My daughter wouldn't eat anything but puree until she was 11-12 months. But her doctor had told us that if she wasn't eating small chunks by 12 months she would need oral therapy. Also, when she was about 1 1/2, we had our daughter evaluated and she was diagnosed with a mild sensory integration problem. Aversion to textures would be one sign of this. These are just a couple things to keep in mind in case your son doesn't outgrow this soon.