Redefining the "Smoothie"

Ethan considers eating a necessary evil. This is partly due to his Sensory Processing Disorder, and partly due to the cerebral palsy hampering his ability to chew properly or to swallow thin liquids. Hence, his meals must take on the consistency of a thick milk shake.

The surest way to insure that his intake of food and fluids is sufficient is to mix the components of an entire, well-balanced meal together and blend, adding enough yogurt or buttermilk and water to bring the mixture to the proper thickness. I do this in a 3-cup or a quart canning jar, using a Braun wand mixer. I put 11-yr.-old-boy-sized servings of each food group in the jar, adding the liquids last.  If, for some reason, it is too soupy, I add crackers, bread, instant potato flakes or instant baby cereal to thicken it again. The resulting mixture is usually 3 cups worth of puree, each mealtime. 


I use buttermilk or yogurt in his "smoothies" for three reasons:
1. He cannot tolerate milk (not even our fresh, raw goats' milk!); but,  fermented milk products are just fine. So, we make yogurt by the half gallons.
2. Because he isn't chewing his food, I figure that the additional enzymes in buttermilk and yogurt aid in the digestion process.
3. This is an important source of calcium.

There are advantages to having complete control over what goes into his mouth...
I don't think that it is a coincidence that he is the healthiest member of our family!  :)
Whenever possible, I use fresh, raw ingredients...our own eggs, uncooked oats, spinach...
Otherwise, with a few exceptions, he eats what we eat.  I have learned that,in addition to milk, tomatoes and pork do not "sit well" in his stomach. I also avoid sugar, excess salt and fats.

Here is a typical breakfast "smoothie": 1/2 cup raw oats (soaked in warm water), 1 egg, 1 banana, 1/2 cup of yogurt, and 1 scoop of protein powder.  I give him "dinner" at lunchtime...that's his "meat-and-potato" meal, with lots of vegetables, too. The evening meal is lighter, so as not to cause reflux at bedtime. A mixture of cottage cheese and applesauce and yogurt with some sort of grain (bread) is not uncommon. I also add supplements, as needed, such as EmergenC powder, herbs, liquid calcium/magnesium, melatonin, etc., which are barely noticeable.

He drinks his meals, on my lap, from a tiny cup, in little sips, which I deposit into his mouth. After making sour faces, perhaps even gagging down the first couple of sips, he relaxes and nearly guzzles the remainder of the meal, willingly and hungrily, after we "get his swallower working".

I am so thankful that all these years (and especially in his early years) we have been able to avoid a G-tube.  Meals that used to take an hour or more, now take about 15 minutes.  I do hope to have him  feeding himself and chewing someday; but, in the meantime, he is consuming sufficient quantities of healthy food and growing "big and strong" accordingly. At 11 1/2 years old, he now weighs 60 pounds.

For now, Ethan "eats to live", not "lives to eat".  And, that is something we would all do well to consider.