Meal replacement drink when unable to eat

[Dilbertian]

Young adult ds has ulcerative colitis, generally well-controlled. Right now he is ill with what I think is hand foot and mouth, but the doctors he saw have not suggested that. He has no UC symptoms, so neither he nor the doctors think it is a flare.

He is coming home tomorrow. He cannot eat and has asked me to make soup for him.

I'm wondering whether meal replacement drinks, or athlete recovery drinks (protein and salts, not glucose) would be useful, too.

Anyone have experience of this? Can you recommend anything.

It's worth a try, though my dad had to have the high calorie replacement shakes when he was ill and said they were all revolting. Maybe give the Huel ones a try (saw they do some in sainsburys in the sandwich section in interesting flavours) or the protein shakes for weightlifting, they seem to come in more flavours that the medical ones.

Having tried sli fast in the past, I would recommend if you get any of the sweet ones to keep them in the fridge, they are infinitely nicer when vey cold compared to when Luke warm.

The clear whey from my protein is genuinely lovely! I have the rainbow candy one and could drink it all day

This is nice and not expensive

https://www.theproteinworks.com/whey-protein-80-concentrate

His tongue and lips are covered in ulcers, so I'm going to avoid any fresh fruit/veg based ones.

What about lollies like mini milks, might help to soothe the ulcers.

Fortisip.

The other recipe I have is an old Jamie Oliver one if you have a blender
Hot milk, cinnamon (optional), banana, honey, smooth peanut butter, oats, horlicks. High calorie and you can add plain protein powder and it's comforting as it's hot

The massive Tesco didn't have any of the products you've suggested!

But I bought a chilled milkshake recovery drink, Complan sachets, and a carton of egg whites. I can make ds milkshakes or iced coffee with the egg whites.

The slimfast drinks are ok as an interim measure (look at the nutritional info) and you can get them delivered by Superdrug next day delivery.

Bit late now as you've already been to shops but also jellies and yoghurt (Icelandic yoghurt is high in protein, lower in fat I think).

If you've got a pharmacy near you they often stock the protein drinks like fortisip and meritene as lots of their customers need that kind of thing.

You might be able to get them online from pharmacies with next day delivery. Ordering this evening would probably get them to you for Friday.

I hope he's feeling better soon.

Yogurt may be a little sharp with such bad ulcers. I've got jelly at home, which I will be making up tonight. Thanks for the suggestion of how to get the others. Doh! Why didn't I ask at the Tesco pharmacy?!

Oh bless him, I had HFM after DD brought it home and it's honestly horrendous.

I can't remember the name of it now, but I got some weird product for ulcers that basically made like a little shield over them. I had to basically coat my entire mouth in it and it felt really weird but did give some relief for periods of time. I sympathise with him as it's one of the most painful things I've had - I tried to cry about it but it was too sore to even do that!

Iglu gel! That's its name.

Oh yeh, fair point!

If you do decide to nip out again rather than getting deliveries, might be worth giving your chosen pharmacy a call first to check they have stock and save you any wasted journeys. Pharmacies are normally ok with that (in my experience anyway). The Tesco website usually has the pharmacy phone number listed when you use the store finder.

In the (pre-covid) past, Tesco pharmacy have also phoned around their other local pharmacy branches to see if any had stock when I arrived in person and they didn't have what I needed.

Sorry if I'm repeating things you already know - I didn't realise you could phone pharmacies until I developed health problems myself so thought I'd mention it in case it could be useful. They can actually be quite a supportive service in a practical sense when you're managing long term problems.