Peg tube

Here is a site that tells you

all you need to know about making tube food....the equipment, stuff about nutrition, even has recepies...

http://lucysrealfood.com/basic%20instructions.htm

PEG you later

Vkat,

 

Welcome to dining at the H&N forum.  You will find many of our long term PEG users recommending the Vita-Mix 5000, this is a fine machine.  As for the PEG food, I used the pre-mixed Jevity in the can. It is fast and easy and by using the gravity fill method allows the PEG user to sleep.

 

Now drinking by mouth is a totally different story with different recommendations.

 

Best of luck, happy whirring,

 

Matt

jim and i said:

Vitamix is the answer. Pricey

Vitamix is the answer. Pricey but the best investment I ever made. I make the vegetable soup on Lucy's site and eat it as well as my husband (He had stage 4 BOT). It is great for when they start eating again. Jim gained strength when we added in the real food. Please remember to try to drink as much as possible. Your swallow muscles are lost if you do not use them and can't be recovered.

Hope this helps. Debbie

P.S. We are vegetarian that is why we do only vegetables but Lucy has meat recipies as well.

Jevity

I never got into the creative concoctions that can be put into the PEG- only Jevity, and Coke a couple times to clear-out a clog. Long-termers, which I was not, need those creative mixtures, but I would stress to be careful not to put that which may clog the tube too much, or run the risk to do such. And, yes- keep the swallow function going.

kcass

Vita prep3

Wow, finally, something I know about. I want to echo the suggestions here about Vitamix, but want to point out that there are many models. My husband with the cancer hasn't started radiation or anything yet, so I really can't say how it all works with the peg tube, but I work at a juice place and have heavily researched blenders for smoothies. What I discovered is that most high-end blenders have a 2-2.5 hp motor. I have one myself. But at work, when we bought the vitaprep 3 (for 3 hp) it blew us all away with how smooth it made the smoothies, even with coarse ingredients like kale. I believe there are other brands, Blend-Tec, for example, that may also have 3hp motors, also expensive.

So, I hope to use whole foods too when the time comes, my regular blender is more than enough for now, but if I had known how awesome the 3hp motor was for the smoothest of smoothies I would have purchased one the first time.

I once read that Vitaprep will give a 25% discount to cancer patients, but I honestly don't know if that's true. You may also check Craigslist or Ebay for used ones. 

I am also curious to know what the doctors say about making your own stuff. One concern I would have is that if a person is undergoing chemo, they may have too weak an immune system to eat raw produce. But I believe that there are ways to rinse produce to make it safer. We are not there yet, but those are questions that I will be asking. 

Good Luck,

Helen