Real Blended Nutrition (or home blended foods)
The accepted standard feed for patients is still liquid, nutritionally complete, pre-prepared commercial feed which is sterile, standardised and easy to prepare and administer.
However, there is currently increasing interest in the use of liquidised food (blended/ pureed, ‘table food’), both in addition to and as a replacement for commercial feeds. There are anecdotal reports of benefit, and little evidence of harm. However, there is at present little robust research evidence to support this practice, so as yet it cannot be formally recommended.
A UK website about blended diet written by a grandmother to support parents and carers, with lots of personal but helpful advice for other families who are thinking about starting their child on real food.
Another recent publication explores paediatric dietitians’ perceptions and experiences of blended tube feeding use – Dietitians’ perceptions and experience of blenderised feeds for paediatric tube feeding.
Other recommended reading regarding home blended feeding includes two books entitled Complete Tubefeeding: Everything you need to know about tubefeeding, tube nutrition, and blended diets which has been written by Eric Aadhaar O’Gorman (2011) who is himself tube fed and is very informative and helpful. Homemade Blended Formula Handbook Paperback written by Marsha Dunn Klein and Suzanne Evans Morris (2017).
Anyone wishing to opt for a blended liquid food diet via their enteral feeding tube should ask to have an individualised enteral feeding risk assessment carried out by their local NHS dietician to enable them to make an informed choice that is personalised to the individual.
Read Charlie’s experiences of swapping to a blended diet on our website
Read NHS advice on blended diets (with permission from Berkshire NHS): https://cypf.berkshirehealthcare.nhs.uk/media/109514293/blended-diet.pdf or download the PDF : 2019-NHS-berkshire-blended-diet
