In Thailand, a wealth of information is available on tube feeding. The video below, demonstrated by a nurse from Saraburi hospital on the ingredients, preparation, storage and precautions needed.
Do note that the ingredients are all dietary approved by dietican and the hospital. It is similar to what the dietician from our hospital briefed us. My mom has benefited greatly from the diets provided from the hospital and I wish to share the method of preparation for those of you who wished to prepare food for your loved ones who is on tube feeding.
The food preparation is made for 1 day use and store separately based on the number of feeds required in a day.
If your loved one have conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart ailment and cholesterol, please consult your doctor or dietican for modifications required in the diet.
Equipments you will need:
Important as told to me by nurses and dietican: Blender and utensils, including for preparation for tube feeding must be SEPARATE from the household use. This includes cleaning items like sponges, brushes and drying cloth. Hygience like washing hands and food properly are important. Purpose is to avoid contamination. According to the nurses from the hospital that my mom had stayed, when the food is not prepared hygenically, it resulted in stomach upset and diarrhea of the patient, some resulted in hospitalIzation.
1. Blender
2. Weighing machine
3. Spoons of different sizes
4. Stainless steel bowl
5. Steel sieve
6. A jug with boiled clean water
Ingredients:
1. Pumpkin. Wash and cut into slice. If no pumpkin, may replace with carrot.
2. Ripe Banana (called nam wa banana which is less sweet). Remove the skin and slice it.
3. Chicken meat (if not available can replace with lean minced pork or fish. However she mentioned pork meat is higher in fat and fish require more preparation. Chicken meat has less fat so it is preferable).
4. Egg
5. Green vegetables (use the leaf part)
6. Sugar
7. Oil (do not use lard or palm oil)
8. Salt
Starting from 2.20min, she mentioned to cook the ingredients, take all ingredients and mix together in the bowl except for the sugar, salt and oil.
From 2.40min, is the part on blending. She showed the food in the bowl that has been cooked in a pot for about 30 minutes. Blend the cooked ingredients together with the water, sugar, salt and oil. For water, use portion enough to help with blending, not too much. Place the blended ingredients in the fine stainless steel sieve to sieve. Gently stir the mix at the sieve to help it go through.
Note: We need to sieve it to ensure there is fine enough so that it would not get stuck and block the feeding tube.
At 3.23min, she showed how the blended puree looked like in the jug with measurements. Divide the portions accordingly based on the volume per feed, how many times and the timing as advised by the doctor or dietican. For my mom, each of her enteral bag is about 300 ml. She would eat 4 meals a day.
Add water to make up the volume if insufficent. Then divide up into enteral bags or airtight clean containers (that can take 80 degrees of hot water) .
Important: This prepared meal must be consumed within 24 hours. Do not keep the food overnight. Prepare the food fresh daily.
Storage: Starting at 4.15min, she explained on storing the extra portions (for later consumption within the same day). DO NOT STORE IN FREEZER, VEGETABLE COMPARTMENT OR THE SIDE (fridge door) to avoid the food spoiling quickly.
Store at the first or second shelf, the usual storage in the fridge.
At 4.40min, she mentioned about reheating. Take out from the fridge and reheat in warm water. Ie the enteral bag or the airtight container soak in warm water of about 80 degrees for 20 minutes. Always feel the temperature of the bag or continer on your skin to make sure it is not too hot or cold. Do note once you take out the food bag, the contents need to be consumed within 2 hours or else the food would spoil.
In the end of the video, she mentioned it is VERY IMPORTANT to keep everything clean and washed thoroughly before and after use.
The food preparation must be very hygenic to avoid food poisoning, contamination or infection.
For me, I order my mom’s tube feeding food from the hospital canteen. I am fortunate that the hospital supplies the food which we paid for on monthly basis. Each morning, we would drive to the hospital to collect 4 portions kept in enteral feeding bags:
However, most would not have such access. Therefore I hope the video would be helpful for you as a guide to prepare the puree food for tube feeding.
Actually the most detailed video I see that explains the food preparation in strong precision, down to blender speed and food measurements is the video below by Bangkok hospital. However I apologise that my understanding of the Thai language is not proficient enough to translate the video below: