Blended diet
05/02/2025
My blended diet journey began when my son Nico was 6 months old.
Nico was born with a rare muscle disease and hence tube fed since birth. I felt that just because he was tube fed didn’t mean he had to be left out of the nutritious food that other children had, so I decided to start introducing him to a blended diet (alongside his prescribed milk feeds) from the age of 6 months in the same way as other children weaning off milk to solids. I started with small volume at first and increased this gradually to make sure that he could tolerate it well.
The initial motivation was to include real food into him, as I wanted his digestive system to adapt to real food rather than just formula milk. In addition, I felt the need of having to do something to improve his bowel movements, and therefore having blended diet was an option to introduce more fibre into him.
The first benefit that I noticed was that I could control what I put into his blends, and I could make sure that he had all food groups that he needed with no preservatives or additives added like other packaged food in the market. What came after was the weight gain. Nico had been struggling to gain weight despite having tried fat supplements and increased milk feed. When we introduced a blended diet, I could control what went into the blends and tried to add high calorie ingredients without extra volume. Another added benefit, which has become our most important benefit, was due to the fact that Nico was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 4.5 years old. So I was trying to find way to provide him food that can help stabilise blood glucose level.
For those who are thinking of starting the blended diet journey, I would suggest starting to think of why you want to start. Every child is different, especially when they have complex medical needs. Understanding the reasons why a blended diet might be a better option than formula feed could help you decide what to put into the blends. Considerations include food group intolerance and allergies, volume intolerance, medical background and specific needs. With dietary requirements a blended diet offers benefits, as you can simply exclude those food groups with assurance of no contamination as you can make the blend yourself at home.
Personally, due to Nico’s type 1 diabetes and lack of weight gain, I tend to aim for more fibre, protein and fats with less carbs. I often include seasonal fruit and vegetables that I could find in supermarkets. For some expensive or out of season ingredients, I would go for frozen. Usually I cook all ingredients in large pots and leave them to cool and blend. Ingredients that we can usually eat raw will be blended raw along with the cooked ingredients. If you want to make them a different colour, you can blend each colour at a time.
The next thing to consider with the blend is equipment. A good blender is a must. I tend to go for a powerful one that is at least 1700w in power. Usually a minute blend is enough. I usually sieve the blend to make it super smooth to avoid blocking the tube. If you need to control for carbs and calories, you will also need a good food scale too. After sieving, it is time to put them all in storage containers. Personally, I use steerifeed bottles which have ml markings on the side, so I know how much is in each feed, and they come in different sizes too. Some may prefer to feed different sizes for different times of the day, so preparing different size containers may be an option. The bottles give you better control of the volume per feed and also reduce waste. The bottles are also very convenient to store in the freezer. I usually batch blend the food once a month. So I store them in the freezer and only take out the portions that I need the day before. I put them to defrost in the fridge and warm just before a feed. With the adaptor, the blends can be fed directly, mess free, drawn into syringes.
The downside of a blended diet is the lack of time for preparation. It could take me up to 8 hours each time to make a month’s worth of blended food for Nico. It also means you need a large empty space in your freezer too. The complication for me is the fact that I have to weigh everything I blend so that I can calculate carbs per feed in order to calculate the insulin dose for Nico. Another problem is, when we are away on holiday, we tend to rely more on packaged blends or prescribed milk and we aren’t able to carry large amounts of fresh blends with us, especially when travelling abroad.
Just because you are making the blend rather than cooking meals doesn’t mean that the children cannot get involved. When Nico was young, I often let him help me with the preparation of the ingredients. Now that the batch is getting larger due to increased volume needs, and usually it takes me the whole day for each batch, I tend to prepare his blend when he is at school. He will come back after school to admire the final products and says, ‘Thank you mummy’, giving me a big hug.
Although very time consuming, it is very rewarding at the same time, seeing my freezer stocked up with Nico’s blended food. I know that each day I am assured he is having a balanced diet. One day he came home and told me that they learnt about different types of healthy food at school and the teachers asked who had those in their meals. All his friends said that Nico’s lunch is the healthiest as it contains lots of fruit and vegetables and Nico has always been so proud of the fact that his feed is the healthiest in others’ view. His friends often call his blends ‘Hulk’s soup’, as it is so healthy and keeps him strong.
In summary, feeding blended food has made such a difference to Nico. He has gained the weight that he needs. His blood glucose level is under control and is very stable with blended food. He has a lot of energy every day and his bowel movements have improved. So I am glad that I made that decision 7 years ago to jump on the blended diet journey.
Rapaporn recorded a video which you can view
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