Re: Tube feeding Atkins--Marsha

[Guest guest]

Marsha,

Sorry to hear you aren't getting the kind of support your family needs. This is

very frustrating!!! Grrrr.

It would certainly be possible to tube-feed the Atkins diet if you can feed by

gravity or syringe. In fact, such a transition might be a nice gentle way to

work into the keto diet proper. We have done some blenderized tube meals for my

daughter. We've had problems using a pump with blenderized food, but bolus

feeding works fine if your daughter can tolerate the less controlled speed.

What we found was this: our blender does not " liquify " foods well enough to

satisfy the pump and it also clogged her tube sometimes. Other g-tube families

swear by the Vitamix brand blender, the " Cadillac " of blenders, which really

does liquify whole foods according to these parents. They are spendy, ~$400,

but with a dr. rx they'll sell you a refurbished one for ~$250. We also found

that cream sometimes churned to butter inside her tubing where it goes around

the pump rollers. Obviously that creates a plug. If you can syringe bolus or

gravity feed, none of these issues would be problems.

Hope any of that helps.

Rose-Marie,

mom to (8 year old)

[Guest guest]

Marsha,

Sorry to hear you aren't getting the kind of support your family needs. This is

very frustrating!!! Grrrr.

It would certainly be possible to tube-feed the Atkins diet if you can feed by

gravity or syringe. In fact, such a transition might be a nice gentle way to

work into the keto diet proper. We have done some blenderized tube meals for my

daughter. We've had problems using a pump with blenderized food, but bolus

feeding works fine if your daughter can tolerate the less controlled speed.

What we found was this: our blender does not " liquify " foods well enough to

satisfy the pump and it also clogged her tube sometimes. Other g-tube families

swear by the Vitamix brand blender, the " Cadillac " of blenders, which really

does liquify whole foods according to these parents. They are spendy, ~$400,

but with a dr. rx they'll sell you a refurbished one for ~$250. We also found

that cream sometimes churned to butter inside her tubing where it goes around

the pump rollers. Obviously that creates a plug. If you can syringe bolus or

gravity feed, none of these issues would be problems.

Hope any of that helps.

Rose-Marie,

mom to (8 year old)

[Guest guest]

Marsha,

Sorry to hear you aren't getting the kind of support your family needs. This is

very frustrating!!! Grrrr.

It would certainly be possible to tube-feed the Atkins diet if you can feed by

gravity or syringe. In fact, such a transition might be a nice gentle way to

work into the keto diet proper. We have done some blenderized tube meals for my

daughter. We've had problems using a pump with blenderized food, but bolus

feeding works fine if your daughter can tolerate the less controlled speed.

What we found was this: our blender does not " liquify " foods well enough to

satisfy the pump and it also clogged her tube sometimes. Other g-tube families

swear by the Vitamix brand blender, the " Cadillac " of blenders, which really

does liquify whole foods according to these parents. They are spendy, ~$400,

but with a dr. rx they'll sell you a refurbished one for ~$250. We also found

that cream sometimes churned to butter inside her tubing where it goes around

the pump rollers. Obviously that creates a plug. If you can syringe bolus or

gravity feed, none of these issues would be problems.

Hope any of that helps.

Rose-Marie,

mom to (8 year old)

[Guest guest]

Marsha--

>>>What about all these Atkins Shakes on the

market? Would they work? <<<

Well now, that's a very good question! If they would, they should tube feed

very easily. My husband and I tried the vanilla powder (for weight loss) and it

was the FOULEST tasting stuff ever to pass my lips (my hubby agreed, and here is

a gentleman who will even tolerate MY poor cooking!), so we chucked the can

pronto. But I do recall it warning you to use it only as a supplement, rather

than a staple food. This is where the internist will be very helpful, because

he can help you analyze the ingredient label to see if this disclaimer is just a

legal thing to cover Atkin's bum or something to be taken seriously.

As far as ratio, etc., I couldn't tell you that without the can. The powdered

shakes are less costly than the pre-mixed, although through a warehouse like

Costco I don't know if that is necessarily true.

You are thinking creatively--I can tell already that you are going to master the

keto diet with no problem!

Rose-Marie,

mom to (8 year old)