Self-Feeding Control

I've mentioned Buster's tendency to choke and gag.  Though is happened a lot more when he was younger, it still happens now.  He will not remove food from his own mouth if he doesn't want it there.  He will just sit with it in his mouth for ages.  I'm still trying to teach him that it's okay to spit food out...into his hand, into my hand, anywhere really.  I don't know if it grosses him out or what but he won't do it.

Here's something I've noticed recently about the gagging.  He tends to do it less when he's feeding himself.  I don't know if it's because he's concentrating on it harder since it takes much more work for him to get it into his mouth or maybe he's just more prepared for it to get into his mouth.  But, for the first part of the meal, when he's feeding himself he gags less.  Eventually he gets bored of the process of eating and I have to feed him the rest of his meal just to be sure he's getting enough food.  This is when he tends to gag.  No actual choking recently, so little happy dance for that!

Bananas seem to be a trigger at the moment.  They are kind of thick and mushy and though he likes them, sometimes when it first gets in his mouth he'll gag.  We are constantly reminding him to "Chew!  Chew!  Chew and you won't gag, Buster!"  Last night it was bites of sliced turkey.  I think he just wasn't into eating it.  He had mac & cheese, strawberries, green beans and turkey on his plate.  Any sort of meat is always his least favorite thing.  He was a strawberry eating maniac but the few bites of turkey I gave to him on his fork immediately made him gag.  He would then chew and swallow but not without me telling him to chew.

So how to help him stop gagging?  I still do not know.  I suppose it's something he'll eventually grow out of and as long as he isn't chocking or throwing up, it's just something I should learn to live with.

This week I want to work on him eating grilled cheese again.  He's only eating a bite or two when I make one.  He will eat cheese and bread separately but once I put them together and toast them, he's less interested unless we are at a restaurant.  His therapist suggested getting some fun shaped cookie cutters and cutting a sandwich (be it grilled or not) into fun shapes.  I'm going cookie cutter hunting this week!