Ella's baby food - have you tasted it ?

[GinisLife]

I'm currently recovering from treatment for a tumour in my tongue. Currently in hospital because I was struggling to eat at home. When they do let me out I'm still going to be on quite a mushy diet and I've just been looking on Ocado to see what there might be. The pouches aren't very high in calories so I'm going to end up on loads per day ! Have any of you tried them yourself when feeding your babies ? What are they like ? Or any better suggestions welcomed. Thank you

That will cost you a fortune!

For calories mashed potatoes with lots of butter?

For protein maybe a protein powder in full fat milk? Also to up the calories?

For veggies soup and fruit smoothies?

Or just whizz up your own meals?

As the PP said, turn everything into soup.

They’re pretty flavourless, sorry! I don’t know if a little bit of salt might improve them.

I have a nutribullet that cost £60 and makes amazing smoothies! If you put in some full fat greek yoghurt, protein powder and nut butter along with fruit and veggies you’d get more calories and taste

Very bland - especially because of the low salt content. Can you manage things like cottage pie or porridge - those are what my dad ate when he had dental surgery.

Is is the sucking that helps you, better than eating smooth food off a spoon? You can also get yoghurts and smoothies in sucky pouches. Could you also get or make nice thick but smooth soup and drink it warm through a straw (or would that be nasty?).
Hope you feel better soon x

I’m not sure how many meals I’d be able to stomach in blended form but sticking to soups/smoothies/protein shakes would probably give you everything you need in the short term.

Porridge and Soggy cereal for breakfast!

What is your medical team’s advice? Surely not to eat baby food? As you say you’d have to eat quite a lot to reach a suitable calorie intake.

Trouble is my taste buds and my taste "action" are compromised at the moment. If it doesn't taste right or feel right I can't swallow it. I love Mashed potato, I could live on it normally, but it was one of the first things to go as it went grainy in my mouth. Fruit smoothies can be sour, I've bought ready made soups but they're vile. I ate a fair bit of mashed cauliflower with gravy last night and enjoyed it. First real food since Christmas!! The baked beans were bleugh - but then they weren't Heinz!) I'm also not up to cooking for myself. Oh, and to add to the mix I can't have cows milk ! I'm awkward me 😂

They have that heat-treated (I think?) flavour that you find in lots of prepackaged soups and ready meals. I can't stand that taste but obviously loads of ppl find it fine! I can't describe it, like a peppery kind of taste but not spicy.

It's the same with some if the jars of puree too.

Lentil dhal or similar might be good?

Could you get some Ensure, or similar calorie dense nutritional drinks to help supplement your diet? They could do for one meal a day maybe, one less dish to figure out.
Milkshakes made with non dairy milk, banana, protein powder, whatever else you want to chuck in?

It’s quite sweet as they put fruit in everything.

Wiltshire farms food do mushy style ranges. I have no idea what they are like but I think they have two seperate ranges of different levels of mushy.

I haven’t ordered any other their food but it’s certainly looks good and sounds good.

Oh gin that sounds awful!

What about actual meal replacement shakes? I thought you could get stuff like that prescribed?

Have you asked to speak to the hospital dietian, specialist nurse for your condition or McMilliian as they maybe able to give you advice.

A stick blender will turn a multitude of food into purée.

Hope you have a speedy recovery.

You can get fortisip on amazon It is a meal replacement drink and nutritionally balanced. It might not be very exciting but it is a good addition to your current diet.
It has kept my DF going over recent months.

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. My mother had oesophageal cancer last year and I spent most of the year caring for her. We put everything in the nutribullet. She had lots of soups, chicken and carrot mostly and mashed potatoes. Shame you don't like them. Spaghetti hoops squish down ok and are soft. Broccoli liquidises nicely, especially with cheese sauce.

You might get hungry, the fortisip things are good if you're out and about and need a snack because other options are limited on the go.

I second a stick blender, less than £20 from Argos. I originally bought one for baby food and I love it now. Also means that you can experiment with different textures as your mouth heals and you may find that you can move to more solid foods from straight up pureed

GinisLife - I had a complicated tonsillectomy when I was in my late 30s and ended up in a not dissimilar situation, in that I could only eat mush and I couldn't taste anything. Not only was the op complicated but I had post-op complications as well, so it was over a month before I could eat normally.

I found protein shakes were really useful, mashed avocado, mashed tuna mayonnaise, yogurts, sorbets, custard, mashed banana, soup, soup and more soup.

Baby food pouches won't really contain enough protein for a fully grown adult and they are quite expensive, so if you can, I would avoid those.

Sending you best wishes for your recovery.

It's bland and an odd texture based off the Thai curry one I just tried DS with. The fruit pouches aren't bad as smoothies but he refused to eat it and ate my lunch instead.

They taste of nothing and I'm guessing they aren't particularly nutritious for an adult.

Just puree your own food or eat lots of soup.

I've never tried the meals but the fruit smoothie ones are lovely. We buy them for camping/hiking just because they're more convenient.

I didn’t like the taste of the Ella’s pouches but the HIPP organic jars are quite nice! They’re on offer in Boots at the moment too.

I know you said you haven’t been keen on soup but the Baxter’s range have some really nice flavours these days - some texture so not totally ‘liquid’, I find them really tasty - the tomato and rice one is like a mushy chilli!

Could you try M&S ‘ultimate mash’ - that’s very smooth and they also do a nice carrot and swede version.

Sending you huge good wishes for a speedy recovery.

I had Wiltshire farm foods once - they did a tasting at my workplace for clients to sample. The meals were actually quite tasty and you can pick different consistency and portion size.

I had oral surgery and was given meal replacement shakes. I found adding a scoop of Haagen Dazs ice cream made them a whole lot more palatable.

If you are finding smoothies etc too sour, have you tried miracle berries, that make sour things taste sweet? My dad's taste was affected by chemotherapy and he found they helped. He had them in a powder form that he added to food.

Definitely look into getting build up drinks like complan, ensure etc. They are designed for people unable to eat very well and have enough calories in them as well as nutritional value that you could have a couple a day if you're struggling to get enough calories in? You can buy them from places like Tesco and pharmacies but can also get them prescribed but usually only if you're BMI is low or you've lost a lot of weight unintentionally. You can get some advice from SALT if needed who advise people on puréed diets etc. do a quick google search and they'll be lots from SALT on how to get calories into your diet if you're on a modified diet.

Thank you all so much. I was prescribed Fortisips & Fortijuices early on but they contain cows milk and I couldn't keep them down. Then I started having vegan shakes with rice milk which didn't contain cows milk but they started coming back up last week. I've seen the dietitians but their answer to everything seems to be milk based stuff and I'm sick of repeating myself that I can't eat it. I'm back on Fortijuice from today diluted 50/50 with water and intravenous anti sickness meds so they will help. It didn't help I couldn't fancy anything at home but now I'm in hospital and bring "forced" to eat I am doing much better. I've had chicken casserole, peas swede/carrot mash and mashed potatoes for lunch. All puréed and piped to look real !!! I guess it's order a stick blender and cauliflower cheese and spaghetti Bol through the blender !!!