"DOES YOUR FAMILY REALLY EAT THAT MUCH LETTUCE?" BRANDON'S G-TUBE DIET INCLUDES GREENS EVERY DAY

BRANDON'S G-TUBE BLENDED DIET
Red Chard, Beets, Kholrabi & Peas From My Garden!

Someone recently asked me, "What do you do with all that lettuce? Does your family really eat that much lettuce?"

I wish I could say our entire family "really ate that much lettuce" every day, but we are not quite that healthy (yet). However, there is one family member who consumes an entire bunch of kale, chard, collards, spinach, or mustard greens EVERY DAY.

My youngest son, Brandon, has a g-tube. Brandon was born with a rare neuromuscular disease, congenital myasthenic syndrome, and spent four months in newborn ICU. He has a tracheostomy and is ventilator dependent at night. He's been g-tube fed since birth. Though I began blending food into his manufactured canned formula when he was 5 years old, I have been blending a diet of 100% whole foods since May 1, 2010, and I add one bunch of greens to his food every day. He was actually the reason I wanted to start lettuce beds. Not only was I interested in learning how to grow food, including lettuce, I was interested in saving $2 a day on just lettuce for him alone.

Brandon in newborn ICU, at home at age 18 months, standing in front of his ventilator and prepping for another surgery.

Over the past couple years, I have had a handful of people ask me for samples of what I blend in Brandon's food, so they can share it with a friend or family member who is caring for someone who has a g-tube.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BRANDON'S G-TUBE DIET 

I've also been asked how I learned to blend his food. When I started blending his food years ago, I couldn't find very much information about it, but I felt compelled to do it. What a blessing in Brandon's life! Prior to Brandon receiving a blended food diet, Brandon was constantly sick with unexplained fevers and/or respiratory infections. Endless coughing, bloody secretions, vomiting, increased need for oxygen, suctioning 80 plus times during the night, antibiotic after antibiotic... something needed to change.

My thoughts kept going back to "nutrition", but I didn't know what to really do about it. About that time I had a dear friend who turned me onto the idea of whole foods, herbs, nutrition and health. She let me borrow her nutrition books and pick her brain! So, I just began researching. I read several nutrition books and online articles. I mulled information over in my mind. Changing from a Nestle Nutren diet to a whole foods blended diet was certainly a process, but once I made the complete switch, Brandon's health improved immediately!

I have tried a few different diets over the past four years including plant based nutrition, gluten & casein free and the paleo diet. What works best for Brandon is a predominately plant based diet with lean meats or fish once or twice a week. 

Three months after eliminating Nestle Nutren Jr. with Fiber and all dairy from Brandon's diet, his secretions, coughing and need for suctioning were drastically reduced allowing us to eliminate two medications specifically designed to lessen his secretions and help him breath better. The problem was that Brandon wasn't getting better on medication, so they kept increasing the dose. Once we changed his DIET, his secretions actually became too dry, so we were able to eliminate those two medications, and he finally had normal secretions. His digestion improved allowing us to eliminate his Reglan, which he had been using since he was two months old. He had more energy, and his unexplained fevers went away! Brandon is a walking poster child for nutrition directly affecting your health in very significant ways.

Brandon today at age 12! He still sleeps with a ventilator, but he rarely needs to be suctioned at night. He has only been on antibiotics once in the past 4 years, has had no recurring pneumonia in the past 4 years and has only had 2 colds in the past year!