oooh thanks rufalina, that's a very interesting thread, and actually I think I read it in a real hurry one day!

I forgot to say that the other thing our speechie said to do was to spoon the food into the sides of his mouth/gums to encourage a more mature chewing action. She thinks his tongue doesn't actually come out far, plus he has an underbite (and a very very mild tongue tie)... so sometimes the food is just sitting right on the front of his tongue and easier to spit out. If the food goes into the sides of his mouth, he'll be more likely to chew it (and learn to chew well), and he certainly is taking it ok into the sides like that. Still won't eat peas though (whether whole or mushed). Interestingly we also tried that baby pasta and he refused that too.

It's difficult when you're trying to work on these little graduations of texture & lumpiness! But he still does better with lumpy foods than anything hand-held.

It's great to hear you've had such improvement, and it certainly gives me more hope we'll see similar improvement. I never thought I'd be trying to encourage a baby to play with food!