The road we follow to gain weight...

As we begin week 3 of Jace’s blenderized diet, I realized that he was beginning to lose precious weight that he just cannot afford to lose at the end of week 2. It is nevertheless shocking that whole foods cannot battle the high fructose corn syrup that his previous diet was filled with.  A simple boost in some extra calories will hopefully do the trick. I plunged into finally blending up an avocado into his dinners along with toddler meat sticks and was given the suggestion of trying out carnation instant breakfast for some extra calories plus other boosts such as olive oil. Added bonus: saying goodbye to overnight feeds! That may seem like a small inconvenience to overcome,  however; overnight feeds have led to less inconsistent sleeping patterns, waking up to his pump beeping (low battery), the connection tube becoming disconnected which resulted in milk everywhere, middle of the night baths to clean up Jace, changing his bedding and having to get him back to bed. Although it happened only every once in a while, that is just one more worry that is just unnecessary…who eats when they sleep? 

Starting a blended diet!

It's been a while since we last thought of starting up a blended diet, despite the research, pulling recipes, weighing the pros and cons and worrying about the what if's. Thankfully, Jace's speech therapist introduced me via email to another parent that does BDs (blenderized diet) and all it took was hearing why don't you just go for it...and Jace is going strong tolerating 10 days of pureed baby foods and less pediasure! Soon enough, I will be able to purchase a vitamix and blend whole foods into a puree blend so that Jace can have breakfast, lunch and dinner along with a few snacks on a regular schedule. Overnight feeds are gone! Ideally, I do not want to keep blending up baby foods for too much longer, how great will it be to just blend up the same dinner everyone else is eating and to include Jace as part of our dinners, to really include him. So far, so good. He is enjoying peach/banana smoothies with rice cereal, a little touch of cinnamon and still needing a little pediasure (along with water to make sure its thinned out enough) for breakfast. His lunch is a can of pediasure (will be adding another food to this soon). He's tolerating mac and cheese with peas, a tablespoon of olive oil and a dash of salt for his early dinner and often has chicken, turkey or ham for din din, which I add a variety of other foods and calorie boosters to as well. I purchased a book called Complete Tubefeeding which contains everything I need to know along with some recipes as well. One of the most important things I have learned is that with just about everyone has unique needs and there is not a one size fits all for blenderized diets...and as a parent who is used to being told what to feed my child, having this sudden freedom to feed him as any 6 year old boy should be, is exciting! Now, instead of telling  him its time to eat, I talk about what he is eating. It is definitely a step in the right direction and I look forward to having a vitamix and providing Jace with a more balanced diet!