Mixing it up! in the VITAMIX

Since Owen had his g-tube placed, he has been on a blenderized diet. This means that everything in his tube is real food, liquefied, and given via a syringe. Being an RD I knew of these diets, but most people don't want to take the time to blend foods, and tube feedings are covered by most insurances, and therefore are free. So, you can see why people choose to pop open a can. The cans are also stable at room temperature, when unopened, so they are EASY!

All that being said, I couldn't bring myself to use them for Owen 100% of the time. After putting so much time, energy, and effort into pumping, something that takes about 10 minutes seemed effortless! Also, I would not want to live on pediasure/ensure. Owen did have a transition period where he was getting a blend of fortified breastmilk and pediasure, and he was so backed up it was ridiculous. His bowels have much improved, and require much less energy than before! I did some investigating, and found out that with an industrial strength blender, and bolus feeds with a syringe, we could successfully feed our 1 year old real food.

I didn't think that this would be possible with using a feeding pump. It really wasn't. I tried. Before Owen's surgery, I would try to use a blenderized diet, and sometimes it would clog the pump, and othertimes not... Very inconsistent... Which isn't a good thing when you have a hungry baby. What was do-able with the pump was very small amounts of baby food, yogurt or rice cereal added to the liquid mixture. I had been doing this for months to make sure his gut would handle different foods. But if I increased the volume of foods or added peas, it would clog the mechanism in the pump and stop feeding. It would continue to run, however, so if you weren't paying attention to the volume in the bag, a half hour would go by and Owen wouldn't have gotten any food. This sadly happened more than once in this trial period. I went through many, many tube feeding bags, tears (Owen and I), and serious talks with Chris on this topic.

I tried for hours with our insurance to get a different feeding pump that has a bigger mechanism that could handle the thicker food. The feeding pump that was recommended by the enteral feeding department at Apria was not covered by insurance, as "No feeding pump is meant to handle anything other than liquids or formulas". REQUEST DENIED. Hmmm. After a year of renting a different pump, I was all pumped out... This would have been an option, to pay out of pocket for the other pump, but there were no guarantees that it would even work. Plus I had already made a wee stink out there so they knew that I was wanting it for a home-made diet, which didn't make anyone (but us) happy. I wanted it as a back up anyway, since we had been successful with bolus feeds via syringe. So we were to transition to 100% bolus feeds. And 100% food. YAY!

We are so happy to say that Owen has tolerated the quicker bolus feeds very well. The first week after surgery, he didn't gag or vomit once! That was AWESOME! It felt so foreign to not even use a bib or burpcloth. The laundry was lighter, it was pretty good! That was a little of a tease, but he will usually go 2-3days in between an episode. This time, when he does lose his lunch, he really does, probably the whole thing. It's quite a show, but thankfully it has only happened once in public, and none in the car. (He ALWAYS used to lose his lunch the second he was strapped into his seatbelt even an hour after his meal.) The prius is quite happy, and much cleaner now.

Owen has also tolerated his blenderized diet pretty well also. At first I was mixing everything up all together but it seemed a little too much for him. He seemed to have a tummy ache, gas, etc... So We changed some things up. Here is his food recipe ~1200 calories. Owen requires slightly higher calories than the average year old (er, almost 15months...) due to his heart physiology. Most kiddos can gain on 800-1000calories.

I do this MOST days, but other days he gets a mixture of milk-yogurt-chicken

3 Cups goat milk (here is where I will cut out 1 cup for 1 cup of yogurt, or 1/2 cup for 3 oz chicken
3/4 cup lundberg brown rice
3/4 cup bob's red mill steel cut oats
3/4 cup green beans, steamed (from the garden)
3/4 cup kale, raw or steamed (from the garden)
~2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 ml liquid multivitamins with Iron
1 ml additional vitamin D (400IU) *He was slightly deficient a month ago
*these veggies are a garden staple right now, but I will also throw in tomatoes, any squash, really any veg. These just freeze easy and steam quick.

I blend fruits separately. There is NO scientific evidence behind this, although you may have heard that fruit should be eaten on its own. There is a mass email that has gone around for years. None of that is true, and if you do not believe me, check it out on Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/fruit.asp

We have found that this small "fruit snack" works better on days when Owen sleeps in, appointment days, and it just seems a little more normal, to have something on its own. It is usually 4 ounces of liquefied fruit- watermelon, plums, pears, etc. He doesn't have a fruit snack every day... Probably every other. But that one fruit snack has about 2 plums in it, or 1 cup of watermelon cubes. So it all evens out in the wash...Er, blender?

We still feed Owen 5 times a day (roughly every 3 hours). Sometimes it is a challenge to fit in 5 full feeds so we will just add in the fruit snack. He gets about 200ml of the big mixture every 3 hours. If he has been drinking more water in his sippy cup around the mealtime, we cut back on the feed so as not to over fill him. Any of his oral intake (of foods) has not been enough to decrease the volume of the mix. He has taken to goldfish crackers this past week. He probably ate about 20 the first day, and has continued to dabble in them here or there. He really prefers the crunchy stuff, but will now touch softer/mushier foods without making the "EW GROSS" face. PROGRESS! I give him cooked chunks of apples, potatoes, any veggie we are eating, and any finger food really. It is usually just a matter of time before it hits the ground. Hopefully the new high chair will quell Owen's need for shotputting his food.

While I am on the topic, (long blog turning loooonnnger!) We/I opted for the plain wood restaurant style high chair. I like wood vs. plastic, and we needed something wipeable, and hose-downable. This has worked for that purpose, but it doesn't contain Owen very well. We push it up to our table, but it doesn't fit underneath it, so he can touch his gtube, his connector, and also watch everything under the sun drop to the ground. I was really resisting getting a new one, but at some point we will have another child, and I found one that was worth it. Plus Owen won't be able to turn all the way around even when strapped in. DANGER! OXO Sprout chair, hopefully you also bring more stability to feeding times!

Hehe, this longer blog has taken 3-4 times to write it, hope it makes sense. Below are some photos to assist you with my rambling.

 Glass Bottles-we love them!

 Today was a brown rice, potato, chicken kinda day... The yellow is 2 TBSP of olive oil. Garden fresh green beans, rosie's pre-cooked organic chicken from costco, baby! Small bottles are Vitamin D on it's own and the other is a regular old liquid multi-vitamin for kids. Just an FYI- Goats milk isn't nutritionally equal to cow's milk. Calories and Protein, it's pretty similar, but it isn't as high in folate as cows milk. Since we are really engineering Owen's nutrition, it all balances out:)/

 Add it all together, and what do you get?

 Vitamix 5200 is AWESOME! I am an affiliate, so if you are interested you can purchase one using my affiliate code. You will get FREE SHIPPING, and I will get a percentage of the sale. I am going to use that percentage to purchase toys for the kids in cardiac ICU at UCSF, and/or contribute to the scrapbook hour @ UCSF that was pure therapy for me for a month.

 It blends it all! I really don't even need to cook the potato, as it will blend it all up regardless. But I wouldn't just eat a raw potato, so there you go.

 MMMMM. Owen's food for the day.

I have tried other professional grade blenders, but they really do need to be of the vitamix caliber. I am MORE than happy with our purchase, and if you are using it primarily for a medical reason, they offer a hefty discount for a refurbished blender (ours), still with the 7 year warranty. I have to say I have used it to make soups, ice cream, smoothies, and salsa. It actually cooks the soup from the friction of the blades, taking about 5 minutes from chopped veggies to steamy-ready-to- eat soup!!


If you want to check it out, you can click on this link. I plan on using a portion of my commissions to purchase toys for the Cardiac ICU kids at UCSF and/or support the parent scrapbooking hour also at UCSF. Just be sure to enter in my affiliate code if you want me to get credit:). #06-006563.
 https://secure.vitamix.com/redirect.aspx?COUPON=06-006563

As you know, the purpose of this family blog isn't to sell things, but this has changed our lives (and Owen's well being) for the better, so I wanted to share it with you.

If you have any more questions about this fine piece of machinery, blenderized diets, etc. you can email me at: chelsea.britton@yahoo.com.