Sunday, March 17, 2013

This is how we do it.

Our journey into the world of a blenderized diet began well before we actually started the diet.  We've only been doing the diet for around four months.  I know, that doesn't sound like long.  In all honesty, it feels like this is all we have ever done.  I started off nervous, counting every calorie, measuring everything that went in the blender.
Two weeks into it, every day was coming up with more calories than the formula had ever gotten in her, even when she was on 32 k/cal formula.  Every day was coming up with no puking, meaning the calories we were getting in, were staying in.  And everyday, I felt like a much better parent, getting all of the food groups in my child, in a healthy, well balanced meal.
I'm not so fumbly anymore.  I feel like I have it under control most days.  While beauty does eat the same thing (with a small amount of variation) for breakfast every morning, so does my four year old.  The rest of her meals are exactly what we eat most days.  She also gets free water and milk outside of her meals.  Her calorie intake is somewhere around 1000 calories each day.
Just to give you reference, she is sixteen months, weighs seventeen pounds, and is about 28-1/2 inches long.  She is in the 50% percentile for both height and weight on the Down syndrome chart.  While that all sounds good, she started out at 4 lbs 15 oz, and by one month, had dropped to 4lbs 4oz as a result of hypothyroidism that was missed on her newborn screen.  She was not on the charts at all until we started this diet.  Not even the Down syndrome chart.

And this, is how we do it, each and every day. (Our oldest daughter is allergic to nuts, and cannot have gluten or soy.  So our meals reflect that.)

Breakfast
4-oz water.
~6 oz of breakfast-2oz whole milk, 2oz whole milk yogurt, either quinoa flakes (cooked like oatmeal), or cream of buckwheat, and 5ish prunes.
~20ml water flush (30ml=1oz).

Lunch
2-oz water.
~6oz of lunch-2oz whole milk, a protien, a grain, a vegetable, and a fruit.  so an example might be: hummus and crackers, carrot sticks and dip, and peaches.  Why the dip?  Because she would eat it if she ate by mouth and it's extra calories.
~20ml water flush.

Dinner
2-oz water.
~6 oz of dinner-(same as above for food groups).  an example: 2oz. whole milk, pasta with tomato sauce, broccoli cooked in olive oil or butter, and blueberries.
~20ml water flush.

Bedtime
8 oz. whole milk as she falls asleep (we use the feed pump for this).

Our bedtime
Somewhere between 10 and 10:30 she gets 4-oz of water with her last meds of the day.

We are not vegetarians.  We also do not eat meat everyday.  There is protein in every meal on here, just not from a meat source.

2 comments:

  1. So glad I found this! How quickly did you switch from formula to real food? Daughter with DS is 8 months old. Same scenario as yours..puking all day long except at night with slow feed. Did you transition slowly? She is still on PEG tube. Gets MICKEY on June 20th. Should we wait until then?
    THanks.

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    1. we switched really quickly, but she was over a year. i would encourage you to start with small amounts now (just like you would for a baby learning to eat baby food), and increase as you get closer to a year.
      i'm not sure what sort of peg she has. beauty had a low profile peg, but i know some people have the big long tube peg buttons. i think you can still feed her fine through it-i would just make certain to flush well with water...which i do with our tube now as well.
      feel free to e-mail me imamann at gmail dot com if you want to talk more.

      andrea

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