How do you prepare foods for someone with feeding tube?

Ganeva
Ganeva Member Posts: 3
in Head and Neck Cancer #1
My boyfriend was just diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharyngeal. He will probably have a feeding tube. I am not sure what food to prepare, juices etc.

Comments

  • ratface
    ratface Member Posts: 1,337 Member
    #2
    There are even recipe books
    Hi and welcome to the board. Search the threads for something called a super thread and it will have many suggestions. There are published books on the subject specifically for cancer patients. The main focus would be nutrition and the most bang for your buck because constant feeding is a real chore and malnutrition kills 1/3 of us during treatment. Most will use a nutritionist and get recommendations as to tailored supplements for individual patients based on circumstances such as weight and allergies. I would not recommend juice as it has little nutrition and lots of sugar. Honestly, anything that will flow through the tube will work, I once put a meatball through the tube after I liquefied the damn thing in my blender. Use your imagination. Merlot will stain the tube, use white wine to avoid detection.
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #3
    feeding tube
    When I first got mine I poured Ensure or other types of drinks down the tube. Problems were 1) I was still losing weight and 2) It constipated the crap (no pun intended) in/out of me.

    I assumed that preparing regular foods would be a hassel but I was wrong. The first thing I did was buy a three bladed blender with high wattage. There are several out there but I bought a Ninja from walmart with 1200 watts of power. This thing will grind up anything you put in it. When we go to Mexico we have a plain Oster blender that works fine as well.

    Now I can take any food and puree it to go through the tube with a syringe. You do not want the mix too thick and if it is just add water. I add fruit, veggies, pie etc all in one gormet meal. Good thing is that you can mix any foods you want together cause you can't taste it. Just get calories and vitamins you need. I use Ensure for emergencies only tjese days (hoels, visiting friends etc)

    For the syringe, I found two types (all should have a catheter (sp)) tip. One is simply a long 2 oz syringe much like the one the Dr uses for shots, just much bigger. The other is shorter but fatter with a plunger that you can put your thumb through to inject the food. I like the shorter one but there really isn't all that much difference.
  • sweetblood22
    sweetblood22 Member Posts: 3,228
    #4
    Greend said:

    feeding tube
    When I first got mine I poured Ensure or other types of drinks down the tube. Problems were 1) I was still losing weight and 2) It constipated the crap (no pun intended) in/out of me.

    I assumed that preparing regular foods would be a hassel but I was wrong. The first thing I did was buy a three bladed blender with high wattage. There are several out there but I bought a Ninja from walmart with 1200 watts of power. This thing will grind up anything you put in it. When we go to Mexico we have a plain Oster blender that works fine as well.

    Now I can take any food and puree it to go through the tube with a syringe. You do not want the mix too thick and if it is just add water. I add fruit, veggies, pie etc all in one gormet meal. Good thing is that you can mix any foods you want together cause you can't taste it. Just get calories and vitamins you need. I use Ensure for emergencies only tjese days (hoels, visiting friends etc)

    For the syringe, I found two types (all should have a catheter (sp)) tip. One is simply a long 2 oz syringe much like the one the Dr uses for shots, just much bigger. The other is shorter but fatter with a plunger that you can put your thumb through to inject the food. I like the shorter one but there really isn't all that much difference.

    Here is a link to the Superthread for you.
    HNC  SUPERTHREAD
  • Greend
    Greend Member Posts: 678
    #5
    sweetblood22 said:

    Here is a link to the Superthread for you.
    HNC  SUPERTHREAD

    How are ya' doing?
    Just wondering how you are holding up these days.

    Hope all is great.


    Denny
  • adventurebob
    adventurebob Member Posts: 691
    #6
    Vitamix!
    They give you a pretty good discount with a note from the doc. You can make anything liquid. The meatball and white wine diet is very popular as are some healthier options. Nuts are super high calorie and very good for the body. You'll get the hang of it after awhile. Sorry to hear about the diagnosis by the way. Treatment works as do complementary alternative treatments. You get what you put in to the process so get ready to do some serious battle. Best,

    AB

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