Adenoids- Baby won’t eat

[buggybum]

My 13 month old had his enlarged adenoids removed on Tuesday due to feeding issues and snoring/mouth breathing. This was done privately as the wait to see an ENT with the NHS was 18 weeks just for the initial appointment.

His snoring is already massively improved! But his eating is the same. He’s never eaten solid food or purées. He survives purely on breastmilk. He’s quite skinny and it makes me so worried.

I’ve tried everything. Offering finger foods, he doesn’t even put them to his mouth, just straight on the floor. If I try spoon feeding him he clamps his mouth shut and turns his head away and gets really upset, every single time. He’s breastfed on demand still so I can’t really drop a feed as they’re pretty random, but I try to do his mealtimes a little bit after a breastfeed to make sure he’s hungry etc.

I know it’s still early and we’re only day 5 post op, but I was really hoping to have seen some improvement with eating. Anyone experienced something similar?

I think you'll need to be far more patient with this. He doesn't know that the surgery has fixed his eating problem so there's no reason he would suddenly start eating.

I'd take all the pressure off.

Make sure he sits at the table with you while you eat. Model eating and enjoying food. Let him take food from your plate/hand if he wants to.

Let him have food to play with, touch, smell and explore. Model licking food from your fingers and lips. Eat/offer an ice lolly.