Starting on purees at 2yo... am I insane?

[crazychemist]

My DD is 2yo. Bit of feeding history - we did baby-led weaning starting at around 7 months, with the odd purée as a snack when travelling. She was initially quite happy with a wide variety of foods.
Fast forward to about 18months. DD has not been able to breath through her nose since about 4months, has had progressively worse sleep apnoea (she struggles for breath for most of the night, stops breathing frequently an the number of positions she can breath in is reducing over time so I often have to hold her for s significant portion of the night). We are FINALLY seeing an ENT in a couple of weeks (we were on a waiting list for 8 months).
I think the obstruction in her throat (I assume her adenoids, her Father had his removed) is also affecting her attitude to food. Over the last 6 months or so she has been more and more resistant to solid food and the number of foods she will eat has been reducing. I can't tell how much of this is toddler stubbornness/ordinary pickiness and how much is because she finds it hard to swallow.

Last night, in desperation, I got her a pouch of babyfood because otherwise she is not eating any vegetables. She had eaten no food by 5pm except for some yoghurt (her favourite food anyway).

She ate it slowly, but she did finish it! The first vegetables she has had in over a month!

Would I be insane to stop offering her adult food and just start doing purees until after we sort out her breathing? Or might I just be creating a really picky child? I don't know for definite that the food thing is related at all.

I think at the moment any food your getting in her is a bonus. Poor love, I bet that must be awful for you all.

Poor thing, I’d check with your doctor/health visitor to see what they reccomend but anything healthy she’s willing to eat seems like a victory under the circumstances. So maybe still offer her the odd thing alongside if you’re making it for yourself anyway but otherwise purées (or soups?) sound like a good idea.

Hope all goes well with the ENT.

If the battle with food is that bad, then finding something healthy with a huge range of flavours sounds really positive. You really need her to relax around food and not find it a stressful experience. You can always make it more and more lumpy to wean back off too. Maybe lunch could always be solid food, with a dinner mush backup so she never goes to bed hungry?

That sounds really hard for and for you and your partner too.
What you're doing sounds so loving and caring. And I would encourage you to keep trusting yourself whilst you're looking after your little one during this hard time.
Also, do take good care of yourself too. That can sometimes easy to forget at the best of times. So, if you can, I'm suggesting you try and do some caring,nurturing things for yourself too. All the best to you all. And hope things start to get better very soon.

I meant " that sounds really hard for her, you and your partner"

Could you ask for a referral to a Paediatric Dietician as well as the ENT? Are you giving a decent multi vitamin and mineral supplement?

I would assume it’s more beneficial for her to have proper food than it is to have vegetables. What will she eat? Is she losing weight? In the short term, maybe make her some smoothies or something but keep up with whatever she will eat and possibly a chewable vitamin. Lots of kids are picky and refuse fruit and veg, but I wouldn’t necessarily cut out foods generally speaking in favour of purée unless advised by your paed. As a treat though I wouldn’t see it doing any harm.

Thanks for the advice everyone. She always has a multivitamin at dinner time. She actually had a reasonable dinner last night - I'd steamed some fish till it was virtually disintegrating so she had no difficulty with that. I give her fish fairly often as it's nice and soft. She can eat pasta if it's very soft, but she finds bread really difficult and has stated refusing that.

I think the idea of offering a pouch alongside her dinner might be a good one. That way she still has the option of having proper food that we eat, but I'll still get some veggies into her in pouch form.

She isn't losing weight, but she has gained virtually nothing in the last 8 months so is dropping down the centiles. I asked the health visitor, but they said to wait until we'd seen the ENT as it might sort things out.

I'm feeling a bit more sane about it today, was virtually tearing my hair out yesterday when she had eaten nothing at all.

Poor thing.

There's a middle ground between purees from pouches and fully solid food. You could instead/as well do your own meals of that consistency. So chunky soup, daal, mashed carrot and swede, mashed spuds, that type of thing. If she will eat pureed veg and food of the consistency of oversteamed fish, that potentially gives you a few vegetable options if you combine the two? By all means still do a few pouches but also build on the success.