need suggestions - liquid nutrition

[♥Sora_9_Dam3a♥ 0]

i know it sounds strange...but how about the flinstones gummy bear vitamins? my niece takes them and i tried them they're good--taste like candy and the bottle says adults should take 2 per day....

oh pedialyte is a good suggestion. the only liquid she has been able to keep down besides water is koolaid! strange I know but it has lots of calories because of all of the sugar. hopefully I can find all of these things in single servings so that I can get like one of each

eta: I bought her some of those gumball vitamins over the weekend since you don't have to swallow them. you just chew for 5-10 mins and then spit it out. she thinks they're nasty but still trying to convince her to take them anyways

[Mary Lou 681]

I'm sorry to read about your sisters illness. I really dont have any other suggestions, just what others have said about Carnation Instant Breakfast. Is yogurt or pudding an option for her?

[sereia 0]

I used to work in Oncology and Carnation Instant Breakfast was a popular choice...mix it with a scoop of ice cream to add some fat and calories, blend it up really smooth.....Ensure mixed with ice cream is tasty too. Ovaltine is a good choice for vitamins and chocolately taste and vitamins too. The trick is the ice cream to make it taste better. I hope she does okay...good luck with it. For protein grinding up nuts or adding a scoop of peanut butter makes a unique taste too (kind of like a liquid snickers).

All excellent suggestions! Look for coupons online to help ease the costs. I know GNC offers a 10% off members thing that could help. Or try drugstore.com for ensures/etc.

[SnowyTater 0]

I'm sorry for her. It all sounds pretty awful

Well, I haven't tried any of these drinks and they are quite expensive, but here at college stuff like the Naked brand smoothies are really popular. I personally, heck she can definately use the calories, say see if there's a day she's feeling a bit better and run and get her a peanut butter milkshake. Mmmm

How about teas is what I'm thinking? This won't help calorie wise but I thought maybe it'd make her feel a bit better or fuller to have something hot in her stomach, and maybe that'd aid in digestion too? Just thinking teas are so packed with antioxidants and great immunity-boosters and things, and different ones are good for different stuff.

I read an article once about a guy that hated vegetables so drank tons of green tea every day because green offers a lot of the same benefits as veggies. White tea is also meant to be quite good now, too. Chamomile will put her to sleep and mint tea really helps sooth the stomach. Maybe you could even put some honey in them, honey's pretty high calorie.

I think you should try to see if there's not ways to get more proteins and veggies into her system, since a lot of this stuff is sugary or fruity. She needs as many quality calories as she can get, I guess

Good luck with it. I hope she starts feeling better.

[isleta521 5]

hey Amber,

Very sorry to hear about your baby sister. As Steve mentioned, anything that has whey protien is an excellent source of protein and is digested quickly. I could be wrong but some brands are made with egg whey so if she is allergic to eggs then that will not be a good option then. Hope she feels better soon.

[Amby 490]

bought all of these drinks for her and now I'm poor! I couldn't find anything in singles! I called her and asked what flavor she wanted and she was like ewwww they all sound so gross but get the ones that sound the least gross

forgot to add I'm going to head to GNC tomorrow because the pharmacist also suggested GNC like someone on here did. he said that they have fruity ones that aren't milk based. I tried to find boost breeze but no one had it!

[Cassie 8]

The Naked fruit juice blends are excellent, and come in a variety of flavours.

Ensure, maybe mixed with ice cream and some protein powder may do the trick?

In any event, I do hope you find something soon for her.

[♥Sora_9_Dam3a♥ 0]

i know what she means---until now, i'm a little grossed out by those types of things...but i hope you find something she'll like and i hope she feels better soon...

take care..

bought all of these drinks for her and now I'm poor! I couldn't find anything in singles! I called her and asked what flavor she wanted and she was like ewwww they all sound so gross but get the ones that sound the least gross

forgot to add I'm going to head to GNC tomorrow because the pharmacist also suggested GNC like someone on here did. he said that they have fruity ones that aren't milk based. I tried to find boost breeze but no one had it!

[Nessa 23]

Aww Amber, sorry to hear about your sister I'd also suggest GNC.

[SnowyTater 0]

One thing I thought after I posted last night that sounds a little harsh but I don't mean it to be is, well, it's all pretty expensive stuff but really it's not, considering she's not actually...eating any real food or groceries

Is she meant to improve, I mean are the doctors going to do a surgery, or is medication hopefully going to make her better over time, or what?

It was weird. My big sister had Crohn's Disease a couple years ago, or that's how they finally diagnosed it after months and months. She didn't tell anyone for three months that she'd had diarrhea and been throwing up like four or five times a day So ready to kill her for that. But yeh, she was that sick for about five months, lost about fifty pounds I think, couldn't keep anything down. Also she didn't have insurance so my mom had to pay everything out of pocket and when they diagnosed it we ordered the drugs from Canada because it was cheaper.

But like...the doctor wanted her taking NINE pills a day, and my family's kind of old fashioned and skeptical of the medical industry, so she started out on six. She took six for like two weeks, felt tons better, then cut down to three for a couple weeks, felt tons better, gaining weight back, then after a couple months she'd just...stopped taking all of the medicine altogether. It was the weirdest thing. There's not really meant to be a cure for Crohn's, just something you hopefully get under control and have to live with - but hers just popped up from nowhere, was really bad for months, and then just as fast just...went away. Absolutely no problems with it since then.

Hopefully maybe your sisters will do the same

[Caladan 19]

What about Ensure or the milkshake-like supplement drinks that are designed for the elderly? They usually have more calories & nutrients than Slimfast.

Can your sister handle drinking smoothies? Because she (or a caregiver) could make them with fruit, yogurt, protein powder, and flaxseed oil. Less chemically, plus then she can control the supplements.

[Miranda&James 8]

Although this page is really for cancer patients, it has links to websites with recipes to jazz up many of the drinks that have been suggested here. It can get really boring drinking the same thing over and over so hopefully some of these recipes might make the drinks more enjoyable.

http://cancercenter.slu.edu/nutrition/?D=23

[*JG* 2]

My ex had throat cancer and had to go the liquid nutrition route for a long time. Ensure plus or boost plus (more calories) was what they recommended. I can tell you that stuff is incredibly expensive in the long run. Not sure if there is any kind of society in the area that helps you out with that or not. But, you should look into it.

We went through the Peregrine Society, for cancer patients.....they gave you 3 free cases a month. It helps.

[Krikit 1,164]

Boost is excellent stuff and tastes really yummy. Don't get the ones with the additional fibre, though. They're a bit gritty. All flavours they make are good.

Soft foods will be easier for her to get down (scrambled eggs, yogourt, soup, etc.) Make sure she takes slow, small, swallows. Larger ones tend to get stuck and she'll have a much harder time getting it into the stomach.

[Nessa 23]

I forgot to mention soup. You can make vegetables soup and use the blender to become a liquid so she doesn't have to chew anything.