Ever since Finn got the g-tube placed in March, he has been having problems keeping his feeds down. There has been a lot of vomit in our house the last few months. It is really frustrating because he never used to be the kind of kid who would puke, but now....he is the pukey kid. Before the g-tube was placed he would be able to eat 7 oz of pediasure by mouth...now he can only tolerate 5 oz by tube. Anything more and we risk the chance of vomiting. So after doing some research and talking with other moms...I have decided to switch Finn to a blended food diet instead of feeding him Pediasure. It's apparent that he can't keep the pediasure down, and if you keeping throwing something up you don't want to keep eating that particular food. So with the help of our doctor and our nutritionist we have been feeding Finn a high calorie diet consisting of typical foods blended together with our magic bullet and then feeding it through his tube. We have been doing this for the past 2 months and everything has been going so smoothly. He has quit vomiting, constipation issues have ceased, and he seems to be enjoying mealtime more. He eats 4 meals a day: a breakfast, lunch, snack (which is the same thing he eats for lunch), and dinner. It has been going really well. My grocery bill has gone up because I have to buy the high calorie breads, milks, yogurts, and peanut butter for him while Ethan and I eat the lower calorie foods. But it is totally worth it. I make enough of the different meals to last me for 2 days before I have to blend up some more batches. Since I have started doing this I have realized that I need a better food processor. The magic bullet is great, but I need something that is strong enough to break down meats. Right now Finn is getting his protein from eggs and peanut butter...I have tried to blend chicken and steak in the magic bullet and it always ended in disaster....clogged tubes, broken extenders, and food exploding over Finn and I. I expressed these frustrations with Finn's doctor and she decided to write a prescription for the Vita-mix blender. It is a very expensive high end food processor that will allow me to incorporate meats into Finn's diet. The cost of this blender will be covered under the waiver money that Finn has been granted. Now I just have to wait for all the paper work to go through...which can take months. But I am in no hurry...I have gotten pretty creative with the meals I plan for Finn. It was hard at first because I can't get over putting all the food together in 1 batch. But then again, I am the kind of person who keeps her food separate on the plate...none of the foods can touch each other. Once I got over that it became easier to think of things to put in the blender.
We just had a check up yesterday with our doctor and Finn has gained weight since we started this process. She told me that if we couldn't prove that Finn could gain on this diet then she would have to take us off of the blended food diet. Which kind of pissed me off. I will decide what to feed my kid. He's gaining weight, seems happier, is no longer vomiting or constipated. I will not go back to feeding him Pediasure. But I am glad I didn't have to have that conversation with her. But if they do try to tell me not to feed him this diet I will have no problem challenging their opinion.
