Blenderized Diet Update

Tupperware kitchen party - couldn't get him to smile with his eyes open!

Enjoying the spoiling from Uncle Rob who loved shopping for Noah in Disneyland!

Hanging out with the "big" cousins

One of our first blends....they have gotten "better" and now include fresh, whole food ingredients. I'm really happy about that and hope to be able to blend only whole foods (in terms of fruit and veggies)

We are doing well in Noah's journey of "eating" real food. It is well worth the effort and I hope that we'll see the scale show good results next time we have a weight check.

We truly believe that Noah is doing well on this diet. He has slept through the night, has had no more daily "blowout" diapers,. Noah retches at least once around each feed, plus his usual morning retches (2-3 in the hour after waking) so that remains consistent. That is okay with us because it confirms our feeling that Noah is volume intolerant. He retched on Good Start formula, Neocate, Pediasure and now on "real" food. He retches on water. It is hard to believe he has a cow's milk/soy allergy or intolerance based on our continuing journey with tube feeding. Perhaps he is lessening his retches with age? It is hard to know and probably not worth spending time trying to figure out. We are happy to be feeding our little tubie this daily mix of "real" food and have ensured (well, Jared has) that we have all the supplies to make the blending as easy as possible.

What do we blend? Well, I have to admit to breaking a few "rules" and not spending a few days in between introducing new foods to see if Noah has any allergies. We justify our actions by the simple foods we are using and also the fact that Noah did eat some solids between the ages of 3-6 months and never showed any intolerance. As our Pediatrician reminded us, "how many kids are allergic to carrots?" So we are being conservative with our ingredients and watching Noah's skin, bowels and retching to monitor his reactions. So far, so good.

Here are the basic ingredients we use in Noah's blends. They do vary from day to day a little based on his calories/fat/protein/fiber/carbs/vitamins. Basically, he has a veggie, fruit, grain, protein and a fat daily. I use "sparkpeople.com" to calculate his daily intake and it is easy to print off each day to discuss with Noah's RD and Ped.

My main goal is finding high calorie/higher fat foods so we can boost his overall calories without having more volume. Noah can take 6 ounces perfectly but starts to look a little weary when I get to 8oz. However, 4 feeds in a day is enough for everyone so I'm pushing him to the 8oz per feed so that we can at least have quality nap time/play time in the day. I'm not willing to do many feeds out of the house right now (partly due to pregnancy but also Noah's need for a quiet environment during feeds) so we are real homebodies, but Noah doesn't seem to mind!

Here are some examples of what we've blended so far:
Applesauce (sweetened high-calorie type but I'm planning to start using a whole apple soon)
Pear puree
Mango/pear puree
Prune puree (just a few teaspoons)
Cooked, enriched macaroni (I initially used this but have left it behind for higher nutrient grain options)
Cooked lentils and beans
Hard-boiled eggs
Cooked chicken breast (you should see the Vitamix at work - awesome!!)
Avocado (this is my favourite "power" food)
Brown Rice Infant Cereal (thank you Amanda for the tip on infant cereal)
Whole Goat's Milk (I have only been able to find this at Safeway or health food stores but I'm so happy to have it in our quest to keep things cow's milk/soy free for now)
Organic Baby Oatmeal Cereal (cow's milk/soy free!)
Orange veggie puree (carrot, sweet potato or squash - planning to start use baby carrots etc.)
Green veggie puree (peas or beans, I just bought a bag of frozen beans to start trying those)
Olive Oil (good quality extra virgin but will try Omega, flax and coconut oil too in the future)
Dose of liquid multivitamin (Wampole's brand)
Drop of Vitamin D daily

Other medical info:

Sweat Chloride - was NEGATIVE. We are so grateful that Cystic Fibrosis is off the list of possible diagnoses for Noah!

Tube change - should take place next week. I'll let you know how it goes!

Have a great week, everyone!