Gaggin....

So my son Gavin at EVERY dinner won't eat his food and if he does, he then sticks his fingers down this throat until he gags and then vomits. I try to move his hands from his mouth but that doesn't help. I sat with him for 30 minutes last night constantly removing his hands from his mouth and even then he didn't stop until he gagged and the threw up.

I have no idea what this is all about or how I can keep him from doing it....any ideas?!

He eats so little and the little that he does eat he just throws it back up.... :headbang:

 

Tonsils came to mind as soon as I started reading your post . . . one of my boys has huge tonsils, but I never noticed. The doctor was surprised we hadn't had issues because of how large they are. One of the things the doctor brought up was gagging when eating. Our son has done that, but not on a regular basis and he never did it to himself. However, there are some foods he refuses to eat, and he would gag if we tried to force him to try (after this happened a few times, we stopped forcing our "three bites and you can be done" policy) and now I'm wondering if it's because they were too hard to swallow because of the tonsils.

So, it's a lame attempt at help, but was all I could think of. I guess the only other thing I would suggest is to call the pediatrician and share with the nurse what you wrote here. I'm sure they will have something interesting for you to try, or look into.

Good luck!

 

Hmmm.....good thinking!! Thank you!

 

My guys have gone through *several* phases when they would stick their fingers down their throats, gag, and sometimes vomit. It drives me INSANE when they do this, which is probably why they do it. They actually think it's funny, and the more I react, the more they do it. I've found that when they're really bad, I have to completely ignore them, to the point of walking out of the room at times. This usually shuts it down pretty quickly. One time I tried to forcibly stop them by grabbing their arms, then ending the meal, and when they got down from their high chairs they proceeded to make themselves vomit all over the entire kitchen. <_<

My advice would be to show no reaction, and give your DS absolutely no feedback (negative or positive) to this behavior and see if it goes away. I know it's really tough when you have concerns over how much your LOs are eating (my guys were not even on the growth charts until they were about 18 months old, so I totally understand), but he may just be trying to get a rise out of you.

Good luck!

 

I was checking out a daycare center when my girls were a few months old and a toddler there was gagging herself during lunch with her fingers. The care provider was unphased and said that kids do that sometimes for attention. I was apalled and thought, "Mine will never do that!" Well, how wrong could I have been!?

My girls used to do the same thing all the time, particularly at dinner, but especially when it was something they may not have really been so fond of. If we were having something that they really loved, they would stuff it down and not do the gagging thing. I also noticed that when they were bored or had eaten enough (in their own estimation) they would start doing it. They thought it was hysterical, I thought it was really gross and really not funny. I was so startled the first time,they got a big reaction. I learned quickly to ignore and would threaten to take the food away or quickly do it if they seemed unphased by the threat.

So, long story short, I totally agree with the pp and I think it could just a passing phase. Mine started doing it around 14 months or so and stopped around 18 or 19 months and haven't done it since. They are about 27 months now.

It's funny...I had totally forgotten about them doing the gagging until I saw this post. I was mortified and disgusted at the time though. Now they are on to other interesting/disgusting/wierd things. :laughing: