BLENDED DIET FOR TUBE FED CHILDREN IN THE UK
Blended Diet for Tube Fed Children in the UK
Information, experience and practical support for parents and carers considering or using blended diet for a tube-fed child.
This website is particularly focused on UK guidance, practice and experience, including the practical challenges of using blended diet at home, school and respite care.
I've also added a section on the new BLENDS Project. A research based Web Resource designed to help parents and carers give Blended Diet. A collaboration between by Nottingham University, Professor Jane Coed, Dr Sarah Durnan and Vygon UK.
What is blended diet?
Blended diet (BD) is ordinary food, usually prepared at home, blended to a suitable consistency and given through a child's feeding tube.
Commercially prepared enteral formula remains an important and appropriate way of feeding many tube-fed children. But some children do not tolerate formula well, while some families simply want to explore whether real food could be part of their child's tube feeding.
There isn't one right way to feed every child.
A carefully planned blended diet may help some children with gastrointestinal symptoms or feeding tolerance, and many families value being able to use ordinary family foods. It isn't right for every child, however, and nutritional and medical needs need to be considered individually.
About Me
Why I started this website
Hello. I'm Kate, and this website grew out of our experience with my grandson Elliot.
Elliot has cerebral palsy and is gastrostomy fed. When he was struggling with formula feeds, we began looking for other possibilities and discovered blended diet.
It wasn't a straightforward journey.
There was very little information available to parents, and getting blended diet accepted outside the home — particularly at school and in respite care — could be a real challenge.
Things have changed enormously since then.
There is now much more professional interest, research and practical guidance around blended diet. But parents can still find the information confusing, contradictory or difficult to find.
That's where this website comes in.
What you'll find here
🌱 Getting started
A step-by-step guide for families thinking about introducing blended diet, including choosing foods, transitioning from formula and getting started safely.
🥣 Practicalitiess
Information about nutrition, hydration, blending, tubes, administration and the everyday realities of using BD.
🔎 Food Facts & Safety
Answers to some of the questions and concerns parents commonly encounter — including tube blockages, thickness, aspiration, peritonitis, formula and the evidence for BD.
🧼 Food Safety, Storage & Administration
Detailed information about preparing, storing, transporting and administering blended food, including the reasons behind current food-safety recommendations and what the research tells us.
🏫 School, Nursery & Respite
Practical information about getting blended diet accepted outside the home, working with the school and clinical team, care plans, training and dealing with concerns.
🔬 Research & Resources
Information about the BLENDS project, research into blended diet and useful resources for families and professionals.
Every child writes their own manual
One of the most important things I've learned is that what works brilliantly for one child may not work for another.
Some children need formula. Some do well on blended food. Some use a mixture of both.
Some tolerate a particular food beautifully while another child doesn't. Some need a pump, some manage bolus feeds, and some need a completely different approach.
Your child writes their own manual.
The aim of this website isn't to tell you what you must do. It's to give you information, ideas and experience so that you can have better conversations with your child's healthcare team and make informed choices about what might work for your child.
A little bit about Elliot
Elliot was the reason I started looking for another way.
What began as a desperate search for something that might help him has grown into many years of learning, researching, experimenting and talking to other families.
Elliot had his gastrostomy at three and a half after starting nursery and meeting all the bugs he had so far avoided. He had always hovered below the centile line for weight but now with illness his weight plummeted and we gave in. Elliot was initially well and gained weight but then all the problems started. We were desperate for solutions and searched the web and found Blended Diet. Blended Diet is simply food, blended and put down the tube, food that you can tailor exactly to your child's needs and modify as necessary.
Elliot is approaching the 50th centile for his height and weight, despite all the problems his cerebral palsy present us with and the severity of his condition, he has managed to achieve a healthy nutritional status.
If sharing what I've learned makes the journey a little easier for another parent, then this website has done its job.
A final thought
Blended diet isn't always easy. It takes preparation, organisation and learning, and sometimes it involves challenging established ways of doing things.
But it can also mean real food, family food and the opportunity to make feeding feel like part of ordinary family life again.
I hope this website helps you explore whether it could be right for your child.
Kate x
Disclaimer
Nothing contained on this website is intended to replace medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. The information is provided for general information and educational purposes, including sharing my experience of using blended food for tube-fed children. Every child is different, and decisions about a child's feeding, nutrition, medicines or medical care should be made with their own healthcare team.
I have brought together information from publicly available sources, together with my own experience and opinions. I am not affiliated with, or speaking on behalf of, any organisation or official body. I receive no payment for the information provided on this website and do not ask for payment.
I cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of using information from this website in a way that is inappropriate for an individual child or outside the context in which it was provided.