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Happy Springtime
everyone! My name is Lucy and my husband had
free flap surgery for cancer in the back of his tongue.
When he lost more than 10 pounds in 2 weeks while in the
hospital on enteral nutrition (canned, liquid food), we decided we
could do better! Our theory was that homemade, "real"
food would be best for his health and his state of mind.
So, I
looked for feeding tube recipes on the Web and in books and I
found….....very little useful info! Today there is a bit
more information but it is very fragmented still.
I'm not a medical
professional but I developed some solutions (after a few
kitchen messes) and learned some
information that I thought would be helpful to others in similar
situations. So, Lucy's Real Food website sprung into
existence. I hope this information helps you meet some of
the challenges you face.
When you
first begin experimenting, making liquid
food for a feeding tube takes patience. But, for us,
overtime the substantial benefits of
homemade food far outweighed any downside. Almost immediately after switching to real
food, my fiancé began regaining weight (while on the feeding
tube!) and his
digestion and elimination, and state of mind became much closer to normal.
Real food in the tube helped gain weight after surgery and
even maintaining weight during chemo and radiation. Our
doctors have been first surprised and then impressed.
Plus, using real food in the tube creates a sense of normalcy during mealtimes, can
include favorite foods ,
and, importantly, allows us to correct for nutritional
deficiencies such as anemia and other depletions.
Please let me know if this information and the recipes
are helpful and/or if you think I should add information. By the way
because of my husband's sensitivies most of my recipes are lactose and milk protein free (but you
can always substitute milk products back in - they are a great
way to help with weight gain). Please send us your comments,
suggestions and new recipes that work for you. We’d love
to add them to the site with attribution to you.
--
Lucy
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