Something I noticed (doctor on morning TV today) - vitamins. With all the previous food issues, she is likely to be deficient in a number of vital nutrients. Heck, I don't have her problems with food and I'm deficient...
Clearly you can't make hr swallow a horse-pill-sized multivitamin, but can you get any baby vitamins into her? The liquid ones... you're probably already doing this, but it reminded me to mention it.
And yes, the dieting comment was NOT me having a go at you. After everything you've been through, it's flippin' obvious it's not deliberate dieting. Especially since you're currently having some level of success. But where that came from - my mother in law's current problems with food. Not a phobia, but actually physical issues with swallowing, confirmed by barium swallow. But the fallout for mother in law is similar to the fallout from not eating properly for all sorts of reason (including those who actively choose to greatly limit calories because they choose to lose weight - your daughter is not one of these). Whenever, for any reason, food does not get on board in sufficient amounts, the body gets used to the reduced amount and it becomes a much bigger challenge to get the calories in. We're struggling to get food into mother in law and she's still losing weight. She wants to et, she enjoys her food, I'm cooking meals I know she likes. And I've found focussing on flavour has helped a lot. I also have to be careful with texture, because it can trigger the swallowing problems for her. Food too stodgy won't work. Food too lumpy won't work. Small amounts often seem to work best. So one mouthful every couple of hours of something really tasty seems to have more success. I also love egg flips, but mother in law can't tolerate them, she chokes on them. She also has a psychological aversion to them because as a nurse, they used to use egg flips to resolve malnutrition in alcoholics brought in off the street.
The other problem is the fatigue, often from lack of calories. It becomes too much physical effort to eat. We see this with mother in law too. Also, a friend of ours had a lot of trouble with her little girl who had fascioscapular muscular dystrophy. They struggled to get the calories into her, she would fall asleep at the table. So they made a lot of easy to eat high calorie meals for her and allowed a lot more freedom - she didn't have to stay at the table, but could get down and play, but Mum would follow her around with a spoon and while she was distracted by play, they got more food into her. They'd been told she probably wouldn't live to reach her teens. She's now working as a fashion designer and has travelled alone overseas. Gave away her wheelchair ten years ago.
I'm not telling you to follow your daughter around with a bowl and spoon, only sharing other experiences which may at least in part overlap, in terms of struggles to get calorie intake in. Maybe something in there could trigger a thought which could trigger a thought which might lead to a new idea.
My problem with mother in law right now - I'm cooking these nourishing, high calorie meals for her, and I end up eating more of them than I should because she ends up eating less than we had cooked for her. So I am the one gaining weight! And this is a huge problem for me medically...
Very frustrating.
You've got some soup into her, I'm sure I remember reading... will she eat other kinds of soup? I have a pumpkin soup recipe that adds sour cream, nutmeg and chives. I use chicken stock for it but vegetable stock would do. Although frankly, I don't think now is the time for her to stick to being a vegetarian... I usually make my own chicken stock but there are some excellent supermarket ones around if you're just too stretched right now. Let me know if you want recipes.
Marg
