I continue to post about baby-food making day because each time I do I get messages from strangers thanking me for the encouragement and push to try to make their own blends for their tube-fed children. If you want to try something that is simple and will make you feel like the mom-of-the-century, try this: Dominic's breakfast blend. Not only is a homemade blend more nutritious and beneficial to your little one, it will restore a sense of control in your life that having a medically complex, technology dependent child takes away.
As I've said before, each family has to make the decision that is best fit for their situation when it comes to formula or real food. A person's dignity can be upheld with either method, but the rebellious hard-head in me refuses to feed him something I would not feed my other children, so there you go, we blend. My point is this: if you are so convicted, as we are, then don't be afraid to try real blended food. If you don't have a high power blender, start saving (and learn about the re-furbished Vitamix blenders for medical reasons at a 25% discount ) and start adding stage 1 baby food to your child's feedings. I have never met a mother who has tried real food (either home-made or store-bought baby food) that experience a great sense of relief and comfort that popping open that can of formula didn't provide.
Dominic is spoiled you know. He gets one blend for lunch and dinner (though I'm going to make separate lunch and dinner blends next time) and a totally different blend for breakfast. I did this because I wouldn't want to eat the same food 3 meals a day, so I don't think he should have to. Here's his breakfast blend:
30 hard boiled egg yolks
6 extra large avocados
10 lbs apples, peeled and boiled or baked
2 cups oatmeal cooked with milk, sea salt, and butter (because butter is one of the joys of life and I want him to have every joy possible... AND because he needs extra cholesterol because of his brain disorders)
Blend each ingredient separately and then mix them together into a big steaming bowl of goodness!
This blend lasts me for about 1 month and I store all I can in 60ml syringes that I wash and re-use (remember to oil the rubber ring with olive oil after washing and before storing to extend syringe life) and put the rest in mason jars. Each morning Dominic gets 120 ml of this blend and 30 ml cow milk for breakfast. I told you he was spoiled. I store the food in the freezer and every night before going to bed take out 2 60 ml syringes and let them defrost in the fridge for the next morning.
And because this doesn't seem to be obvious, since I've been asked this by every medical person ever, be sure to hard-boil the eggs before you blend them... unless of course you are raising Rocky Balboa then I guess you can use raw egg (joke... don't do this...). And yes, I also cook the meat for his dinner blend (just because they also ask me this). Can I just say one thing: if I'm going to go through the effort to blend all of his food, make it from scratch, and provide you with the breakdown of macro-nutrients per ml of his blend, do you really think I'm dense enough not to cook his meat first? Grrr.
I blend for many reasons, the biggest being this: Dominic does not belong to Mike and I, he belongs to the Lord and has been given to us temporarily for his short sojourn on this earth. It is my mission to present him to the world so he can teach others the dignity of every human life, despite the abilities or disabilities they may possess, and the goodness of God in every situation. In the spirit of upholding his dignity, I am convicted that he should be treated just like a normally-developing child, and given the opportunity to flourish with the nutrition God has provided us through plants and animals, not false-nutrition manufactured in a giant pharmaceutical plant. The effort we put forth making his blends is a bold proclamation, an act of loving rebellion, affirming his dignity and goodness to the world and to those who feel people like him just aren't worth the effort. It is a "yes" to Christ who has given us everything and a simple act to give ourselves back to Him.
In Jesus and Mary,
Chasity
Dominic being spoiled by his nurse Krystyn...
...and being smoothered by his Sissy Mary
