BLENDED DIET FOR TUBE FED CHILDREN IN THE UK

I've put together a few useful links about blended diet for tube fed children.  I'm happy to add other useful ones if you want to contact me. 

 

My best source of information is facebook and I am a member of Blended Diet UK which is a wonderful resource.  There are plenty of people on there who have been doing BD for some time and have a huge amount of information and are always willing to share and support.  There are plenty of new people too who are starting out on the BD road. 

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This is a super book and everyone should get it.  Lots of practical advice for starting blending for tubies. 

I would recommend everyone get this book as its the most easily accessible for non professionals. 

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To obtain Calorie breakdowns and vitamin and mineral breakdowns of the food you are blending there are plenty of apps and sites like

My Fitness Pal and SparkRecipes and loads more. 

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With these you just put in your ingredients and their weights and they will calculate all the above.  Most people start off with frantic calorie counting and stressing over the 'perfect' blend, but in the end most people just know what suits their child, what their favourite calorie booster are, and recognise that over the course of the day the majority of the essential nutrients will find their way into your child!

 

Some diets are very specialised, such as the keto diet and exclusion diets for children who have various allergies or intolerances.  These can be done with BD of course, as they would be done with an orally eating child, but because the child's health is dependent on getting it right I recommend getting the dietician on board.  They should support you in your choice and work towards a safe outcome. 

 

How you feed your child depends on many things.  If they have a completely unsafe swallow it may be practical to make up a 'complete' blend and give boluses of this over the course of the day, refrigerating the remainder.  They can have 'meals' with everyone, only theirs is blended and given via the tube with tasters if safe.  It is recommended that children sit with their families round the table for meals and join in and be part of the meal time interaction.  They can have food made up in batches and frozen.  I prefer to make a batch of breakfasts (oats, honey, almonds, blueberries, bananas), sandwiches for lunch (wholemeal bread, cream cheese, butter, celery, apple, walnuts, cucumber, tomato, red pepper and mayo) and a snack (greek yogurt, berry fruits, cream, bananas, sweet brioche) and dinner (chicken Korma curry with lots of vegetables and coriander naan bread).  I try to make my blends taste nice and offer tasters. 

 

Writing a Protocol        NHS trusts will need to write a protocol for their employees to follow for giving food via a feeding tube.  It should be based on the BDAs Tool Kit for feeding BD via a tube. 

 

Use of blended / liquidised ‘table food’ diets via gastrostomy:
Questions and Answers

 

Some informative answers to questions that may occur from multiple sources and brought together by the charity Together for Short Lives.  Just download from their site.

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