Having a tube fed child is far from the norm, but it is my normal and I love the ability it gives me to control the nutrition that goes into my daughters body. I feed a Real Food Blend, there are a few on the market but I'm not using those I am feeding my daughter real food that I cook, it actually is about 90% the food we actually are eating as a family, I love leftovers.
When I first became a tube mom it didn't even cross my mind that I could still feed my daughter regular food, formula was just pushed my way and I gladly excepted, I think it was a sort of shock response in trying to grasp that may daughter was going to have a tube the rest of her life. If you know me you know that healthy, clean eating is a top priority, I love being in the kitchen, going to farmers markets and eating all kinds of flavours.
A few months into tube feeding it literally hit me like a ton of bricks, why am I not feeding my daughter food, she is a human, humans eat real food. It legit hadn't dawned on me until that very minute, the lightbulb went off, I think I was a little more shocked I hadn't even been presented this option. So I hit up google, and started looking, it was totally a thing, not a lot of info was there but it existed, of course it existed, its just food, you just make it in smoothie form, so it will go through the tube!
The next day I started shopping for a blender, had it within the week and made my first blend. No I didn't ask, I didn't consult, if you know me thats usually how I roll in life, do the research, figure out if it's safe, if it's doable, the right thing for me or the family and jump in with two feet! But common folks why couldn't my child have real food, every other baby, child, adult has real food, why should that change just because it's not going in her mouth but instead into her belly directly.
We have all made a smoothie right? so why couldn't I do that with last nights supper? I just purchased a $400 blender that was featured on Myth Busters where it was shown pulverizing a cell phone, so why couldn't I make leftover pot roast and veggies into a smoothie? Nothing was stopping me. Guess what, it was magic and it was a super smooth meat smoothie yummmm lol
Ok so, I have an older daughter who I went through the steps of feeding her the first foods to make sure she had no allergies, so I approached this the same with Marley, before long she was eating everything in her smoothies, I just always made extras of whatever I made for supper and blended it afterwards, I created a standard breakfast blend I still use as ol faithful for her breakfast and evening snack, peanut butter toast, blueberries, banana, protein powder, and a nut milk.
So why did formula freak me out so much? Well... where do I start.
Carbohydrates
- corn syrup
- corn maltodextrin
- sucrose
- fructose
Fat
- canola oil
- corn oil
- soy lecithin
- soybean oil
- sunflower oil
Protein
Whey and casein are from cows milk but the lactose has been removed or a soy protein isolate which is a prufied form of soy protein.
Fibre
Soluble fibre which is usually derived from pectin , guar gum, or oat fibre, or insoluble fibre which is usually soy fibre.
Water
Lots of water, depending on the calories/ml water can range from 70-84%
All the added nutrients to make up your daily amount needed, cause heck your not getting them from the above list so of course they are going to have to add them in.
So there ya go folks, so would you like that as your only source of food and nutrients all day long, every day of your life? not very colourful, literally. So instead I opted to feed my daughter real food, full of color, that I have prepared with love just like the rest of the food I cook for my family.
Check out a short video on how I approach making Marley lunch and dinner
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