Additional Needs

Holidaying… With A Tubie

Posted by Carolyn Voisey on 2nd June 2016 Additional Needs, Advice & Support, Food, Disabilities

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It is also our first time staying in a caravan (granted, a posh one) with Sam and only the second time we’ve been away since he had his PEG fitted.

Now, formula isn’t an issue as we just need to make sure we have sufficient sachets to make up his milk… the blended diet aspect however is requiring rather more planning. 

Think of it as a week-long picnic, but with the planning involved for a small military campaign…

The prospect of making up enough blended feeds for a week plus transporting them from one end of the country to the other does not fill me with joy.

Currently, Sam’s feeds are done in batches; each recipe is then split into the correct portion sizes to give him around 250 calories per portion.

Sam CAN taste his meals even though they go straight into his stomach (think burping… sorry), so we try and give him different meals for each feed so he doesn’t have a whole day with just one blend.

Like anyone else, he’d get very bored, very quickly.

Usually we use storage pots into which we portion up the blends, cool them and freeze, labelling as we go.

This also means that a week's worth of blended meals will take up considerable freezer space, which we simply won’t have in said caravan.

Hmmm . . .

As the prospect of carting our beloved vitamix with us fills me with dread (have you seen how expensive those things are, not to mention the amount of power they use!), there has been some considerable research done into alternatives… unfortunately none of the options are going to be suitable for us.

A lot of families use the reusable, sterilizable baby food pouches, but the volume of Sam’s meals means that these aren’t big enough.

Knew it wouldn’t be that simple!

Another alternative option was a nutri bullet type blender that would be fine for smaller batches… however as money is tight that isn’t an option either.

So… not so much back to the drawing board as back to the vitamix.

Yes folks, you’ve guessed it, it’s coming with us.

So if the news reports a black out across a caravan site in Devon next week, you’ll know who’s to blame! x