Hi all,
As a personal anecdote, my youngest also had an overactive gag reflex as an
infant, and is still pretty sensitive now at 16 1/2 mo.  He caused a LOT of
damage to me as well.  We did suck training with him and it worked quite
well.  What we did was to let him suck on a finger (nail bed down, of course,
and not the pinky finger.), and gradually put the finger further into his
mouth, over a period of days, until the tip of our finger was at the soft
palate.  Also, we used a Medela nipple (had to bottle feed EBM cause there
was no way for me to BF 'till I healed) and turned it upside down so he would
have the nipple actually farther back in his mouth and he had to work harder
to get the milk out since the holes were on his tongue and the milk couldn't
dribble out.  All of this worked really well, for us.
Thanks for the congrats!
Jay, CLE
(Now I need a frame.....)