October Healthy Highlights #1: The Perks of Pumpkin Seeds

October Healthy Highlights #1: The Perks of Pumpkin Seeds

Shell-free pumpkin seeds “pepitas” can be purchased at most grocery stores. Despite their small size, pumpkin seeds are packed with nutrients. Pumpkin seeds are rich in protein and healthy fat, making them a nice calorie booster to promote weight gain. Pumpkin seeds are a great source of dietary fiber, which supports good digestive health. They are also rich in vitamins and minerals providing an excellent source of magnesium, zinc, iron, manganese, copper, phosphorus, vitamin K, and potassium. This impressive nutrient profile has been shown to boost heart health, improve sleep, and reduce risk factors for chronic diseases like heart disease and certain types of cancer.

Chestmilk for the Older Tube-Fed Child

Chestmilk for the Older Tube-Fed Child

When we went in for my daughter’s 6-month check-up, the neonatologist was shocked that I was still pumping. She couldn’t believe that my daughter was still being exclusively fed chestmilk because so many tube-fed children are put on formulas for one reason or another very early on in their tube-fed journey. But situations like mine often lead to little ones who are still getting just chestmilk well beyond the point an oral child would have started including other sources of nutrition in their diet.

Expanding Your Child’s Food Variety

Expanding Your Child’s Food Variety

At some point, all parents (especially toddler parents) ask themselves, ‘When is my child going to eat more than 3 foods?’ and then follow up with, “and why do all three of those foods have to be processed carbs?” So whether your child is actually a toddler or just a toddler in the terms of “eating age,” it’s important to understand what to expect as your child begins to expand the variety of foods they eat.

September Healthy Highlights #2: Baked Apple with Ginger and Chamomile

September Healthy Highlights #2: Baked Apple with Ginger and Chamomile

Whether picking your own apples or going to the market to purchase apples, there is an abundance of varieties to choose from. All apples are rich in fiber. In fact, one large apple provides approximately 20% of the recommended daily value of dietary fiber. In addition, apples are a good source of vitamin C, potassium, and antioxidants. The nutrition properties of apples combined with their crisp delicious taste, make them an excellent choice for snacking or baking.

Maintaining a Chestfeeding Relationship While Pumping

Maintaining a Chestfeeding Relationship While Pumping

The chestfeeding relationship provides such a special, unique bond – one that so many parents-to-be dream about. I’ve successfully provided chestmilk to all three of my current children, but our journeys looked quite different. When pregnant with my second, for example, I never would have imagined that she would not only never nurse, but that she wouldn’t eat orally at all. Suffice to say, most parents who plan to chestfeed their babies don’t imagine that process involving a feeding tube.

What Kinds of Foods to Offer Your Tube Fed Child

What Kinds of Foods to Offer Your Tube Fed Child

When a child is fully supported nutritionally by their feeding tube, we have no expectation that they will be eating orally. All of their nutritional needs are being met, so there is no expected hunger drive. And no hunger drive, means no eating. But, even in the absence of oral eating, there are some great things we can do to support the journey towards eating, without the actual act of chewing and swallowing.

10 Ways to Stimulate Fluid Intake and Promote Drinking

10 Ways to Stimulate Fluid Intake and Promote Drinking

During and after a tube wean, some children gravitate more towards eating than drinking causing parent’s concern that their child isn’t consuming adequate fluid for hydration. While we can’t “make” or “get” the child to drink more, we can alter the way in which their beverages are served, how they look, and how they taste to make them delicious and visually appealing. Here are 10 tips to promote drinking.

August Healthy Highlights: Summer Squash and Carrot Soup

August Healthy Highlights: Summer Squash and Carrot Soup

Squash is actually a fruit because it contains seeds and develops from the flowering part of a plant. Summer squash vary in size, shape, and color but are generally mild tasting. The entire squash (seeds, flesh, and skin) is edible. The soft skin, or peel is where most of the nutrients are found, so it is important to keep the skin on when preparing and eating summer squash.

August Healthy Highlights: Summer Squash

August Healthy Highlights: Summer Squash

As we continue to enjoy the summer season, we want to keep the spotlight on fresh produce and this month our feature is summer squash, which originates from Central America and Mexico. These squashes grow quickly in the warm summer months as they take about 60 days from the time they are planted to when they are ready to harvest. Examples of summer squash varieties include zucchini, crookneck, calabacitas, and yellow squash.

Employee Spotlight: Lisa Grentz

Employee Spotlight: Lisa Grentz

Growing Independent Eaters Lisa Grentz has worked as a Registered Dietitian for over 20 years. She earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Washington State University and completed her dietetic internship at Fairview University Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN. Over the ensuing 20+ years, Lisa has worked as a home infusion dietician specializing in pediatric tube feeding and weaning and consults for various feeding teams in Eastern Washington. Her expertise and passion lie in providing community-based nutrition services to infants and children.

Addressing Supply Concerns for Pumping Parents

Addressing Supply Concerns for Pumping Parents

Since tube-fed babies receive a certain amount of food through the tube based on calculations, not their own efforts, pumping parents have very specific volume goals to meet in order to keep up with the needed amounts. This can be particularly tricky, as having a tube-fed baby is strongly akin to having twins: you offer the chance for your baby to eat orally, but then have to pump, essentially taking time to do double feedings EVERY time they need to eat.

Bolus Tube Feeding

Bolus Tube Feeding

Whether using commercial enteral formula or a homemade food blend, bolusing is an efficient method for administering enteral feeds. Bolus feeding requires the use of a syringe to deliver formula or food blends through the feeding tube. The rate of infusion is controlled by how fast the plunger is pushed or by removing the plunger and holding the syringe up, letting gravity take control and allowing formula to flow down through the tube.

Supporting Supply for Pumping Parents

Supporting Supply for Pumping Parents

Many parents choose to pump and continue offering their tube-fed child chestmilk, but this can come with its own set of challenges. As a pediatric dietitian, certified lactation counselor, and momma to a former tubie (for whom I exclusively pumped for over a year), I’ve seen and personally worked through a number of hurdles through which pumping parents may struggle.