This is a recent study and resource source that has been carried out by Vygon and the University of Nottingham. It is a brilliant source of information, support and ideas. While it obviously promotes their equipment and recipes for home blending, this is about you and us and everyone having choice. The more that people can learn about blended diets and the more they can experience them, the better we will all be.

The future must be about choice and helping ourselves to be healthier.

We won’t repeat all they have done but here are a few direct links to the different parts of the site.

Vygon & University of Nottingham Main page

The BLENDS website

Medical professionals

Parents

The study

Resources

Where would we be without referencing this study from Néstle, while they make much of the formula feed, they commissioned this study. It is a good read and a fairly easy one. It clearly charts a course for further research but in itself highlights the many benefits that can be seen from using blended meals where they are appropriate and supported by healthcare professionals.

Thank you Néstle

One of the biggest impacts we saw in our lives was our increased happiness and sociability. Feeding Rune blended food transformed both our personal and social life. We brought Rune back to the dining table, both he and whoever was responsible for feeding him could now eat with the rest of the family. Food became something we all discussed, rather than something to be hidden. Shopping for food and outings all happened together, not separately.

And finally we saw friends, we ate together and no longer was one of us in a different room, separate from relaxing with our friends. We know that we are lucky in that Rune has responded so well to blended meals but that has only made us more determined for everyone to have the choice.

Abstract

A review of 13 papers investigating parents’ experience of long-term tube feeding in disabled children and young people identified a significant impact on parents and families related to oral feeding, decision making and tube feeding itself. Mixed messages and pressure from health professionals and relatives made decision making about tube feeding more difficult for parents. Making the decision to tube feed or proceed to gastrostomy was described in terms of ‘giving in’. Parents expressed a need for consistent, accurate information. Once tube feeding was established there is a positive impact on the lives of the child and family – although some parents reported reduced support and continued feelings of inadequacy. The significance parents attach to oral feeding and their information and respite care needs when tube feeding must be recognised and further explored.

Link

This is an over view study of the use of blended diets in children with Enteral feeding tubes and is a joint position paper of the ESPGHAN Committees of Allied Health Professionals and Nutrition.

We have just published the Abstract below (with a link) but this was a paper from 2022 that we read right at the start of our journey. One that made us think that there was something to what Sophia was doing with Rune. Like many research papers that are available it identifies that there are benefits but that there are still too few studies out there to provide enough information.

It was that idea that there are benefits to eating blended food over formula for supported patients but that more work was needed that made us sit up and decide to carry on.

Abstract

Objectives: This joint position paper of the Committees of Allied Health Professionals (CAHP) and Nutrition (CON) of the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) provides a comprehensive guide for health professionals to manage blended diets in children via gastrostomy tubes.

Methods: A systematic literature search was performed from 1992 to 2021 using Pubmed, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and recent guidelines reviewed. In the absence of evidence, recommendations reflect the authors’ expert opinion. Final consensus was obtained by multiple e-mail exchange and virtual meetings of the CAHP and CON.

Results: Reported benefits of blended diets include reduced GERD and infections, improved defecation, level of alertness and attention span, skin conditions, and appearance of hair and nails. Families report a sense of greater normality. Small case series, cross-sectional surveys, questionnaire-based small case studies, reports of personal experience, and single-center pilot studies are available in the medical literature. A total of 20 recommendations for practice were made based on the results and consensus process.

Conclusions: There is little evidence published to formally inform about the potential health benefits or risks of this practice and how to use it in the best way. This leaves health professionals caring for such patients in a relative vacuum regarding what to consider when providing a duty of care to patients and carers who wish to pursue this method of feeding. This article provides guidelines for safe and appropriate use of a BD, but more research is needed.

Copyright © 2022 by European Society for European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.

Link

Our blends have been designed for bolus feeding with a 60 ml syringe, using a flexible pouch for cleanliness and safety.

If a thinner blend is required, such as for pump use, additional liquid can be added. However, this changes the meal’s nutritional content, which must be accounted for.

Your dietician can guide you through these adjustments. Remember, patient safety is paramount.

This is a risk and one that was a significant concern in the past but with modern equipment, dietary measurements and the quality of our product, it is one that is no longer a common risk. All of our ranges conform to IDDSI level 3.

We have tested our products with a range of ages and conditions and not had any blockages reported. That said, if something does happen, please let us know, we are always here.

Our Organic, tube food pouches are a liquidised level 3 (IDDSI) real food blend and ideal for tube-feeding. As such they are optimised for calories and nutrition, they are easily digestible as an oral feed too but we feel that our Organic, oral pouches are more fun to consume.

More importantly dietary needs vary across us all and so it’s crucial that you make sure that any diet meets your requirements. Having said that, we make delicious, individual real, blended food.

Never be defined by how you eat, be you..

When unopened our organic, additive free blends can be stored at room temperature.

Once opened, consume within 2 hours or refrigerate and use within 24 hours.