Does anyone else's toddler just randomly gag on foods they've eaten a hundred times before?
Ok so my 2 year old gagged at dinner tonight on a piece of soft cooked carrot. Not a new food. Not a weird texture. Literally the same carrot coins she's eaten since she was like 14 months old. I made the exact same face I used to make before I had my second kid, which was full panic. Then I remembered that my first went through about four different phases of random gagging on familiar foods and he's fine, he eats basically everything now. But I'm still sitting here a little confused because it wasn't like she was sick or upset. She just looked at it, put it in her mouth, and then made the most dramatic face and gagged like it had personally offended her. She then ate two bites of rice and declared dinner over. Is this just a toddler thing? A sensory phase? I feel like every time I think I have a handle on what she will and won't eat, she changes the rules. My son never did this specific thing so I genuinely have no frame of reference. Anyone been through it?
Replies · 13
Oh this is my life but like every single meal. My 4 year old will gag on something she ate the week before and act like I handed her a rock. The carrot thing especially. I don't know what carrots did to these children but they have opinions.
The carrot specifically. Why is it always the carrot. They are so soft and inoffensive and yet.
following this bc my 8 month old has started doing something with purees where she just... stops mid bite and makes a face and then shudders. it's not a gag exactly but it's like. a dramatic protest? and she was totally fine with it before. is that the same thing
The dramatic protest shudder, yes, I know it well. With my first I used to think he was having some kind of reaction every time and then I realized he just does that when he's deciding he's bored of something. Could be totally different for your little one though, especially at 8 months they're still figuring out so much. How long has she been doing it?
maybe two weeks? it comes and goes. she still eats most of it she just does the shudder first now. I keep googling and that's probably a mistake lol. she seems totally fine otherwise. her pediatrician appt is next month and I keep adding things to my list
The list at the pediatrician appt. mine is always three pages by the time we get there. they're so patient with me and I know half the things I write down have resolved themselves but I can't stop.
yes exactly. she'll probably be totally over the shudder by then and I'll bring it up anyway and feel silly. but good to hear it might just be a phase thing
Coming back to add that my 4 year old did this a lot more around age 2 and her pediatrician said her oral sensory awareness was just going through a big development window. Like they become more conscious of textures in ways they weren't before. Didn't fix my dinner problem but at least I stopped feeling like I was doing something wrong. Might be worth mentioning to yours if it keeps up, just so you have something to go on.
That actually makes a lot of sense. She's been going through a whole big awareness phase generally, noticing things she didn't seem to register before, having big feelings about socks, you know the deal. The carrot offended her sensorially and I respect it honestly.
Having big feelings about socks is so accurate I want to cry. My daughter refused a pair of perfectly normal socks for six months and then one day put them on herself and acted like nothing ever happened.
ok it is very late and I can't sleep and I just want to say this thread genuinely made me feel less alone tonight. my 8 month old finally went down an hour ago and I'm still sitting here in the dark reading about carrots and socks and I feel weirdly better
Go to sleep, we'll be here tomorrow, the carrots will still be here tomorrow, none of it is going anywhere. Glad you found us though, seriously.
update: she did the shudder again this morning with sweet potato, then ate the whole thing. I am choosing to count that as a win and move on with my day. thank you everyone