While in the hospital after Parker’s Nissen I was fortunate enough to meet with a nurtritionalist who gave me an outline for a blenderized diet to replace the 5 cans of Pediasure a day Parker had been receiving.
The diet is based on The Homemade Blended Formula Handbook.
I can’t say enough good about this resource.
For a kid requiring 1200 calories a day, your ‘recipe’ would look something like this:
- Grains: 4 one ounce equivalents such as 1/2 cup cooked rice, pasta or oatmeal.
- Vegetables: 1.5 cups vegetables. Choose a wide variety of colors for best nutrition.
- Fruit: 1 cup Choose actual fruits over fruit juices. Again, choose a wide variety of colors.
- Milk or Milk Substitute: Milks, yogurts, soft cheeses. (We are using organic goat milk and whole fat cow milk and homemade yogurts.)
- Meat, Beans, Nuts: 3 one ounce equivalents such as 1 T nut butter, meat, poultry, fish, nuts, or 1/4 C cooked legumes.
- Fats: 4 teaspoons of healthy oils such as olive, canola, or flax.
(This is truly just the bare basics. You’ll need to purchase the book for the entire scoop. And, nope, I don’t get any kick backs for purchases made. I purchased my own copy of the book. Parker will also be followed by the FUN clinic at PCMC.)
I do a variety of fresh and frozen fruits and veggies. And I choose to scrounge up the extra cash for organic with Parker. My kids joke that Parker gets the really great stuff and they get stuck with the powdered milk we buy in bulk from the LDS cannery.
And to be perfectly honest, the only way we are going to be able to maintain this diet for the long haul is for me to start growing as much of it as possible. I’ll be setting out my cold frames as soon as I can so I can start growing our own greens, etc.
Our local Smith’s carries a pretty decent selection of organic fruits, milk, and veggies. And they run about 10-20% less than the health food store.
What I REALLY wish I could find is a organic co-op that went year round.
I roasted some veggies and threw them into the Vita-Mix and blended them up.
My Vita-Mix is my BFF. Seriously.
Then I put individual serving sizes into plastic container and stuck them into the freezer for use later in the month.
I was so fortunate to have received some amazing organic beef and chicken from Greensbury Market to use this month for Parker’s blenderized diet.
( While I did receive both steak and chicken, I was NOT paid for any review. If this stuff would have been awful I would have told you exactly that. )
I snuck some of the steak as soon as it was cooked and it was delicious. I was surprised at how tender it was, and how good it tasted with no seasonings what. so. ever.
Then I used half of the chicken in a batch of homemade chicken noodle soup for the entire family. My kids were arguing over who got the most chicken. Ahem. This stuff was good.
I’m hoping that maybe, just maybe, I might be able to work out a blog sponsorship deal with Greensbury Market so that I can continue using it in Parker’s homemade formula.
(Whadda ya say, Greensbury Market?)
Finally, it was recommend that we include a vitamin in Parker’s diet. I just chose a good quality children’s chewable and throw it in the VitaMix with everything else.
I’ll admit. It’s a bit of extra work. But, I truly believe that a good diet will make a huge difference in Parker’s quality of life.  And I’m willing to be closely followed by the FUN clinic. I’m keeping a record of each day’s recipe which I will then show the nutritionalist at each FUN appointment.
Now, off to email the good folks at Greensbury Market!
I am so happy for you and Parker, but you knew that!
Tammy says: Aw, Erin. *smooch*
Hey is Parker on the Travis C waiver? We are on the waiting list for it. And do you get nursing care? I just found out that our insurance only pays for nursing for 90 days. We will probably be waiting for the waiver for a year, he is number 20 on the list. I’m going to go crazy, I haven’t had a good nights sleep since he was trached. We go to pulmo on Wed. he still isn’t sleeping great at night. And I caught him desatting twice while he was sound asleep.
Tammy says: We are on the Travis C Waiver. We got luck as somebody got off just as Parker was trached and needs the vent at night when he sleeps. We receive 3 nights of nursing. You know, when they actually show. The other nights either Reed or I sleep on a mattress on the floor of Parker’s safe room. Our insurance covered NO night nursing. Nada.
I am glad that you were able to get the support you needed to get the blenderized diet into place. I know it has helped a lot of kids be a lot healthier. You are lucky you got to talk to a nutritionist. My insurance did not cover that so we had to wing it with Evan and figure out a few workarounds so that we could get him the proper diet that he needed.
Tammy says: If I were to make an appointment with a Nutritionalist my insurance wouldn’t pay. But because we were in the hospital and I requested one while we were there, they will.
Who can figure out an insurance company? meh.
Thank you SO much for this…I am totally going too buy that book ASAP. I can’t stand PediaSure much more.
Greensbury Market had better get on board.
Yeah, us SN moms want kick backs, right? In food. And medical supplies.
heh.
Prayers. Always.
Tammy says: Heather, you are so very welcome. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
That is awesome. We are just starting on Pediasure or actually Nutren this week from an infant formula. Just reading the header I was thinking you should write a book about this and low and behold someone has. Your such a good mommy.
Nutren Jr. and Pediasure are good formulas, but the hitch we ran into was our son’s “output”. They made him push out rocks, little pebble shaped pooh, after a long grunting session. Compleat is a formula which is chicken based rather than milk, and this stuff made him run all over his lower body. Just to let u know, a medium between the milk and chicken based formulas is a tricky thing to master. Blenderized is how we’re trying to go… so to even out his output.
I am glad to have found this website, lots of good info. =)
Tammy, Wanted to say thank you for visitng Annabel’s site. I am going to put in favorites and in the next couple day days read up on Parker. I am interested in tethered cord fro this moment,but they both have pulm hypertension. Again, thank you and talk soon.
I am starting Austin on the blended diet too! What I would like to know is how you got Parker started on it? Do you do blous (gravity) feeds or run it thru the pump? Austin’s nutritionist insists that he be bolus fed not pump fed when using a blended diet. I would love your input on this.
Tammy says:
I just realized didn’t mention this up above, (doh) but Parker’s blenderized diet is replacing his daily feeds only. At night we are switching him over from Pediasure to Complete, which is a whole foods based formula. Better than a formula made in a lab, but still the exact same stuff day in and day out.
Parker’s daily feeds are bolus because there is NO way the blenderized diet would fit through a pump, UNLESS you mixed the blenderized with your child’s daily water amounts. We usually do those by themselves though.
My kids don’t need special diets or anything but I’m going to go check out Greensbury markets as anyone who helps out you and our Brave Hero deserves my support!
Tammy says: Yay! *smooch*
Just wondering why you chose that company for your meat. Have you used them before?? I’ve always wanted to start getting organic meats but I’d rather go by referral than just picking someone from the web.
Tammy says: Honestly? The meat from Greensburo was sent to us as a review product. I was a bit nervous as I have purchased organic meat from my health food store that was pretty tough and, I realized after I had cooked it, rather old. Not to mention expensive.
But the meat from Greensburo was wonderful. Tender and flavorful. My Mom said it reminded her of the steaks she had when she was a little girl and her Dad farmed and raised his own beef.
Twitter: kadiera
says:
I’ve been meaning to ask – why goats’ milk?
I think we are heading towards something blender-based for Alex’s one night-time feeding. It’s our catch-up feeding, which I can’t see us getting rid of while he still has a trach, unless his oral skills skyrocket in the next month or so. Pediasure makes him vomit, so we’ve been experimenting with things, but I’d really like to get a bit more real food into him overall.
Tammy says: My other kids were also on goat milk due to milk allergies when they were younger. And it is also my understanding that goat milk is easier to digest.
That being said it also seriously expensive and I may be needing to revert back to whole organic cow milk. This diet will need $40.00 a week just in goat milk alone. Which for our budget right now is a bit stiff.
I’m sure this will do wonders for Parker
!
Have you heard of the Azure Standard Co-op? It’s got a lot of natural & bulk foods. And they have a lot of good deals too. We used to buy from them all the time when we lived in CA, since they are based out of OR. They do routes all over the states and I think they have a pretty regular route through UT, but I’m not 100% sure. We haven’t used them much since we moved to OK, because they didn’t have a route out here until recently.
Here’s the link to their website: http://www.azurestandard.com/.
They have a lot of organic yogurts, fruits & grains and in bulk too.
Oh, also in reading your reply about goat milk – you may want to look around for goat breeders in your area. You may be able to find breeders who sell the raw goat milk for really cheap or who’d be willing to help ya out. Let me know if you need help finding breeders, as I could have my sister try to locate some. We have our own herd of goats specifically for having goat milk (been a life saver for my brother w/ DS), so my sister knows quite a few breeders.
Qadoshyah
“fortunate”? Funny how consult with a nutritionist is not considered a standard part of medical care for patients like Brave Hero. Not.funny.
I was surprised at the uneven ‘grains’ section – I mean, white rice and pasta have much less fiber than oatmeal.
Not my area of expertise, just waxing blogger….;)
Tammy says: Funny thing is our insurance would pay for a visit to a GI. Our Pedi is a dietitian, but that’s not her total focus these days. She is however totally supportive with this venture.
re: grains Yeah, the recommendations included regular dry cereal, a slice of bread, etc. We’ve been giving Parker brown rice (white rice and pasta is a huge no-no for an IA kid) an organic blend of differing grains, and tomorrow I’m picking up some millet.
I just didn’t go into total detail on this post. Don’t want people to know how totally weird I am. hee,hee
We do a blenderized diet for our Peanut. Thank goodness we have an awesome nutritionalist! With her metabolic disorder, everything has to be weighed and counted and specifically right. I blogged about it a week or so about it, and I really think it is doing great for her! Her hair and nails grow faster, she just LOOKS better.
I love that you blenderize Parker’s food now too. You are right though, it is more expensive!
Ok gotcha. All of Austins feedings are daytime if we switched to blenderized we would have to go back to some night time as well I am sure. Hmm.
Hello Tammy!
It is great to see that you are using organic meat. It is so common to use organic fruits and veggies but then forget about all the hormones that non-organic meats are packed with. I’m glad you’ve vouched for Greensbury, will have to try!
Keep it up,
Jessica
My son Sean has been mickey tube fed formula for 11 years and has had constant GI distress regardless of formulas, muralax, prunes … We tried Activia after seeing a commercial and it cured his irregularity, 1 tbsp in am and pm did the job. Just starting the Home blended regimen.
Just dad
Hi! I found your blog when doing a search on homemade formula. I have a five year old son who has a g-tube and I am learning more about homemade formula and want to try it- where I get “stuck” (hesitant to begin) is on the delivery method moms are using. Do you mind telling me if you use a syringe/ pump/ how it works out when you are out and about, etc… If you had the chance I’d love to hear your tips. Thanks!
I would say try one method, and see how he does with it. Syringe feeds are alot quicker, but the kiddo may react by puking. Pump feeds need the kiddo to stay where he is for alot longer (sometimes an hour), and he may react by complaining he’s still hungry. I am VERY pro syringe, but it is totally up to the indiviual kiddo. The thing that I am learning quickly now, is blenderized foods MUST be blended enough to fit through tiny holes. Sometimes, I put the syringe right up to the stoma on my son’s belly because the tube won’t let it through. As for the parent doing the blending: Set aside at least three hours a week to get intimate with your child’s food and your blender. =)
Tammy,
Barbara suggested I peek in at Parker’s website here (lovely job, btw). He is one fortunate little guy to have so much support at home and medically.
We are also a homeblending family, following much the same diet strategy as you have going for Parker. YES! It does get spendy. We found that the family garden makes a huge difference…we’re bumping up our garden to 4000 sq ft this year to assist with the food budget and we raise our own eggs.
In case you hadn’t heard, there is a survey of homeblending families going on at http://youstartwithatube.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html. It’s goal is to collect data to help medical professionals understand the health benefits to kids (and adults) and its practical impact on families. I don’t know when the deadline is, but it will probably be before 2/19/11. If you or your other friends who homeblend have 15 minutes or so to help out, it would be much appreciated!
Thanks for letting me peek around your site!
Rose-Marie recently posted..Friday G-tube Favorites- Supplies
This is great! Can I link to our blenderizeddiet.net site? Are you a member yet there?
I pumped 26 months 5 days and no way wanted to open a can of formula. Formula does have a place but… not if we can avoid it!
I’m so glad this diet is working for you. You were very lucky to meet with a dietitian who was knowledgeable and willing to give you information on a blenderized diet. As a dietitian who used to work in a children’s hospital we were not allowed to advise on blenderized diet because of the risk of infection, however so many children do well on it it’s hard to ignore the benefits.