I've spent the last month or so looking into, researching, preparing and planning to ask your GI doctor if we could switch to a blender diet (BD) and get you off of the formula. Most of the things that I've read or looked into (found some GREAT support groups on Facebook and TONS of recipes!) lead me to believe I might have to do some convincing so I went in to the appointment with a transition plan, recipes broken down by nutrients, all sorts of information - I was ready to make my case. I never had to pull out the folder! Your GI doctor just said: "Ok. I'll have the nutritionist come visit with you. Anything else?" "Um - nope!"
So they came in gave us a transition plan that is MUCH quicker than the one I had out together, gave me a simple blend that has everything you need for the day to get us started (so I only have to make one blend and then divide it out) and said "come back in a month for a weight check and we'll evaluate and make any changes we need to." YES!!!!
I wanted to make this switch for several reasons:
1) By two, very few (if any) kids are still on a diet that is primarily formula. Yes, you are eating orally, but not enough to gain weight. You've maintained a steady 20.5 lbs for the last 8 Mondays, but no gain. I knew they would want to increase your calories since you are SO much more active now, and didn't want it to be more powder. You need food.
2) All of the things that I have read about being on a BD point us in a very positive direction: weight gain, less constipation (meaning dropping a daily medication!), better nutrients always lead to overall better health, and even the possibility that you will actually start eating more orally as your body begins craving real foods with all the nutrients you need.
3) We need to get you off of the night time feeds. One of the main reasons you aren't hungry during the day is because you get formula pumped into your stomach all. night. long.
So here's where we're at:
Tuesday we started a new feeding schedule. The dietician wanted to move all of your feeds to the day time to see how you tolerated getting that volume in a shorter amount of time. So this is now our daily feeding schedule:
Starting next week we'll replace one formula feed a day with a blended feed. By next Saturday you should be completely off of formula! They gave us a blend that I can make once a day, so I spent all day yesterday cooking, cutting, blending, chopping, freezing, measuring, weighing, portioning and getting everything ready. Adding weekly tasks and grocery items to various lists. I *think* I will be able to spend about 2 hours every Saturday getting everything ready so each morning all I have to do it dump in x number of cubes of this, of that, a bowl of this and a scoop of that.
 |
| Peas, Blueberries and Spinach |
 |
| Side result - lots of good chicken broth saved up! |
 |
| Coffee cans work great for storing in the freezer! |
Side bonus: we're now using a feeding method called "gravity feed" where we let your stomach accept the liquid accept the liquid as quickly as it chooses which means we're no longer fighting the pump AND your feeding times dropped from 30 minutes to about 5!
We have one month to get things going, get adjusted and see how you handle this basic blend. We'll go back in February for a weight check and see where to go from there! Hopefully we'll get to branch out into other blend recipes, include more variety and play with the recipes some to fit our usual grocery list. The eventual goal is to get to the point where I just toss whatever we're eating into the blender and feed it to you.
BIG changes - hopefully we'll see some BIG results!
No comments:
Post a Comment