Advice about food

[piglettsmummy]

My daughter has a few medical issues which afect her breathing. She uses a ventilator during sleep and as she gets older we are finding more issues. Our newest one is about food. Se has always turned her nose up at proper food and barely eats it. I ignore it and hoped it was a phase but She has been on proper food since she was one (now 2yrs 1mnth) we tried blending her food today and she woofed it down! It's not like we give into her as this is the first time in over a year she's had purée food but I can't help wonder why she won't eat proper food? She will pick at it and eat a couple of bits that's it?

[starfishmummy]

If it is new, then I would rule out things like toothache or a sore throat/cold and then look at sensory issues. I have no idea what being on a ventilator actually entails, - does she have tubes sited in her body that might make eating lumpy food uncomfortable?

[piglettsmummy]

Hi no she wears a mask on her face and air is blown into her lungs to help her breathe. It's not a new problem it's been going on for as long as she's been on proper food but I've alway ignored it and tried not to make a fuss so in that way it's new but no it's been on ages. She doesn't have any tubes inside her just the mask and even then that's not in while shes eating

[UnChartered]

this might sound really daft, but does she know how to chew?

i've been told (by a HCP, not the DM ) that humans learn to chew by copying others, this is often an issue with people who have sight or eye contact issues.

i had to encourage DD to chew, by letting her rest her hand on my face while i did it, then got her to copy that way.

now she chews everything

[SallyBear]

piglettsmummy you say that she has a history of breathing problems. Is it CPAP that she is on at night? Is this because she could obstruct her airway? My DD is on CPAP, she also struggled with food.

[piglettsmummy]

Sallybear, no she is on autoservo. Ventilation which is a type of BIPAP. She has never had an issue with obstruction her brain does not tell her to breathe. Her condition is similar to CCHS yes She can chew sometimes she swallows before chewing properly but she has the ability to eat properly, it seems more of a preference thing than something that physically can't do but then again I cud be wrong. Looking at her she's doing everything right when she's eating x

[piglettsmummy]

Also I shud add that she has suffered twice with winter vomiting bug both times she had to be 'reweaned' before she would tolerate even the small amounts of food she eats now x

[SallyBear]

Maybe you need to see a sp. SALT re feeding issues?

[Dev9aug]

Has reflux been ruled out? DS1 is same, happy to eat puréed stuff but not 'proper food'. Chips on the other hand goes down a treat.

[piglettsmummy]

Dev9aug omgosh??? Yes she will eat chips still not enough but more than anything else. She had reflux as a very young baby however it got better after some baby gaviscon and up to now she shows no sign of it!

[Dev9aug]

we thought his reflux had gone as well and put the vomiting down to cold/cough etc etc but his vomiting increased recently. I insisted on a prescription of omeprozale. He has been having 10mg everyday and is tolerating foods much better and vomiting has decreased significantly. Ds1 is non verbal and i dread to think how long had he been in pain and not been able to tell us.