Gag Reflex

When we started feeding Allison solid food, we noticed that she cannot take a bite without sticking her fingers (and sometimes fist) in her mouth.  At first I thought, this is totally normal, every baby puts their hands in their mouth. Then I realized (when I tried to hold her hand down) that she cannot swallow, and starts to cry and spit the food out if she does not stick her fingers in her mouth.  It became funny to watch her eat, and as seen in this video, Tiffany thought Allison was quite funny. It is like clockwork, spoon, fingers, spoon, fingers, spoon, etc.  I asked Conner's speech therapist (who deals with a lot of eating disorders) and she said that she has seen this before, and that Allison is actually using her fingers to initiate her gag reflex to help her swallow.  She said not to fear, and that Allison would eventually learn to swallow without having to gag herself.