Could hay fever be responsible for my daughter eating very slowly?

My six year olf daughter has a good appetite and food usually disappears quickly but for the past few days she has been eating incredibly slowly. We have been telling her off and removing her food and not giving her pudding after an hour because she tends to be very dreamy in other ways and take a long time to do things. However she has been saying the food is too thick and washing each mouthful down with water. She does have hay fever quite badly despite antihistamines etc Could her windpipe be inflamed - her voice and breathing are fine.