No chewing & fed up with puree

by rita abdilla
(malta)

My daughter is 26 months & has always eaten pureed food. Lately she won't eat it either but she's interested in table food, she likes everything offered. But she will just grab food, put on lips to taste & perhaps bite with her inner teeth. Once the pieces end up in her mouth, she spits them out. She can swallow well liquids & creamy foods. She won't eat crumbly or textured food because she reacts the same. I have tried pulse puree, mashing, no success. She just doesn't know how to handle the pieces in her mouth.

She is very underweight, just 8.5kg and she has a feeding tube in her stomach from which we give milk at night to supplement. Sometimes when she doesn't eat I inject the pureed meal as well to make up for the lost calories. They say she needs round 1000 cal for her age to increase weight. The doctor now suggested to stop all the purees & tube feeding & offer mashed or baby led weaning. Once she's extremely hungry she eats. But will she figure out?

Any ideas what one can do to encourage eating without spitting from the very start? Tks