Hospital food

[Afternooncatnap]

So my 9 month old is in hospital with bronchiolitis. I have to stay in here with him.

the hospital don't provide his milk and won't let me make up formula. So I'm buying really expensive ready made milk. They also don't provide baby food and don't want me bringing home made. So I'm also buying jars of food for him.

They don't feed me and there is only sandwich places at the hospital so I have been buying expensive microwave meals for me.

So including parking it's costing a small fortune to be here.

I just found out that if I was breastfeeding (somthing I was unable to do) they would feed me.

I now just feel a but hacked off that it's costing me so much to be here when there are other parents that are in the same position getting either themselves or there baby fed by the hospital.

AIBU to think that as a children's hospital they should provide baby food, and to feel that they should feed all mums. We all need energy to look after our babies, breastfeeding or not. It's not like I can just not eat because my son is on formula.

astounded by the ' they didn't save his life' comment.

Gosh, no wonder morale is so low in the NHS.

Yeah me too. That’s a low comment.

I was just thinking, when I was in hospital, there was a special menu for people who were on a soft diet. Assuming it’s not a children’s hospital, can you order from the adult soft diet menu?

Is it a blanket NHS rule that relatives are not allowed to be fed?

A&E may be different but I’ve never worked on wards where relatives can be fed. Can you imagine the cost of feeding every person that came through the door? I work in paeds so there are a lot! Plus you always get families who want everything and take the piss, and you can’t make an exception for one person. I wouldn’t expect to be fed as a relative, I’m not ill.

When I was in during labour and afterwards staying on the post natal ward I was fed very well, I was impressed.

I think the problem is the expectation that all parents have someone who can bring them food and/or relieve them of the caring duties they are expected to provide. Again, this paradigm just doesn't hold true at all anymore for many people and especially as NHS care, particularly for paeds, has become more centralised so you can end up hours away from your home and support network. I understand they are understaffed but you cannot expect one person to be there 24/7 with no sustenance and order them not the leave the child's side. I really wonder why this idea persists. You see it all the time on here, 'I have NO money!' 'Do you have a friend or family member you can borrow from?' Um, don't you think they would have tried that if they could?

I don't necessarily think the NHS should feed carers for free (its not just young children and babies, lots of older people rely on family for care whilst in hospital) but they should ensure that cheap, nutritious meals are easily available to buy. Upthread someone mentioned a system by which carers could order meals from the hospital kitchen, to be brought to the ward at the same time as the patients . That sounded like a great idea.

The NHS paid for my dad to have his op in a private hospital. He had a hotel worthy menu the food was excellent. Refreshments were provided to me when I was there, coffee and biscuits and I was only popping in briefly

20 years ago I was a fully bf mother of a 5 week old with Bronchiolitis and got nothing more than a plastic cup of hot chocolate once in a 4 day stay in the isolation unit! I skipped breakfast and went to the canteen at lunchtime for hot food and brought back a sandwich for the evening.

I agree, Barbarian.

Yes being able to order it would be ideal. We order patient meals via the overpriced patient TV thing so surely there would be a way to build the option into that somehow which would also mean you don’t need cash to buy

Tbh I'm not that bothered about any of it. I just want to go home. I'm fed up of eating crap microwave food and when I heard other mums get proper meals I felt pissed off.

From my experience hospital meals are just crap microwave food. If I'd had the opportunity to buy my own ready meals and microwave them, I'd have preffered it, at least I might have got something I actually liked.

So true, thelast. We were not allowed to keep anything 'fresh' in the parent fridge so it was a struggle to get healthy meals. I even learned how to boil eggs in the kettle and I'd sneak a jacket spud in, nuke it and top with tinned veggie chilli. I lost 2st in a flash.

I remember the evening DD1 was diagnosed with cancer and the wee registrar coming in, 'Have you got a friend of family member who can be with you, the senior consultant wishes to speak to you.' I actually started to laugh. It was 8pm, howling gale in late November. 'We came here from the Western Highlands, I'm afraid I'll need to face this on my own.'

My ds2 had similar issues and I used to order him soup and mashed potato from the hospital menu when he was in. Can you talk to a dietician? I found the dieticians really helpful when ds was in hospital. Also it's a bit late now but might help if there is a next time. I keep a bag of hospital essentials I can just grab quickly at the bottom of my wardrobe in case of emergency hospital admissions (we've had a few!) with things like spare phone charger, food for me, pillow, wash stuff. I also keep a rucksack for each DC with a change of clothes, nappies, DVD of something they really like, colouring stuff etc.

Is your baby attached to wires, monitors etc? As long as you tell the nurses where you are going you should be able to take him with you to get some food. I've always done that with little ones who aren't confined to bed. Or sometimes the mums of older children will help out mums of little ones by going to the shop for them. I've watched toddlers for people when I have been in with my then 9 year old and if I'm in with my toddler then someone else will usually help me if I ask. Hope you can get out soon.

My DD had multiple developmental delays and never progressed past pureed food. She has stayed in various hospital childrens wards over the years and pureed food was always provided. At our local hospital they had a hand blender on the ward kitchen which they used to blitz anything off the food trolley - yes you can puree chicken nuggets and chips as long as you've got gravy! At another regional hospital all the food came plated direct from the kitchen like it does on the adult wards. I was asked to choose what DD wanted and it came ready pureed direct from the main kitchen. If it is a genral hospital then there will be geriatrics and patients with other illnesses who require pureed food If the ward can't supply it then the main kitchens should be able to.

Believe me when you've spent as many nights in hospital with a sick child as I have then you'll feel like you've bought the car park and will start craving fruit and veg over a League of Friends shop sandwich and cherry scone!

I hope you escape from the hospital soon.

Children’s hospitals have parents rooms with kitchen facilities, I’d just make up his bottles in there.

From a practical view point who have you spoken to about the milk? Most medical milks only come in powder for so the must be somewhere they can be made safely. In my experience if parents bring in a sealed tin of powder for non stocked milks and give it to the ward staff they will then make up the milk for you. Is there any arrangement like that you can try?

As for food any food can be puréed normally you just have to write on the menu and they will do it in the kitchen sometimes it's a separate menu but it's not that uncommon so should be easily done.

As for which parents/careers get fed that's a difficult one but it is common practice that it's only breastfeeding mums in peads!