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Starting a blended diet can feel overwhelming, particularly if you’ve spent years being told exactly which formula to give, how much to give and when to give it.
The good news is that you don’t need to work everything out on your own.
A blended diet means using ordinary foods, blended to a smooth consistency, and giving them through a feeding tube. For some children, this may replace commercial formula completely. For others, it may be used alongside prescribed formula.
There is no single “right” way to do a blended diet. What works for one child may not work for another, and the aim should always be to find an approach that meets your child’s individual nutritional and medical needs.
What is a blended diet?
A blended diet, sometimes called a blenderised or liquidised diet, involves blending ordinary foods into a smooth consistency suitable for administration through an enteral feeding tube.
This might mean blending the same sort of food your family eats, adapting recipes to meet your child’s nutritional requirements, or using a combination of homemade blends and prescribed commercial formula.
For children over one year of age, the BDA recognises blended diet as an option that can be used either as a sole source of nutrition or alongside commercial enteral formula, where clinically appropriate.
It is important to remember that a blended diet isn’t simply “putting normal food through the tube.” The food needs to be nutritionally appropriate, prepared safely and blended to a suitable consistency for the child’s tube and feeding method.
Why do families choose a blended diet?
Every family has different reasons.
Some children don’t seem to tolerate commercial formula well. Parents may notice problems such as reflux, vomiting, retching, constipation or diarrhoea. Many families, including mine, report improvements in these symptoms after introducing blended foods, although the official research in this area is still limited.
For other families, the reasons are less about symptoms and more about food, family and quality of life.
Parents may want their child to:
Have a greater variety of foods.
Receive foods that are familiar to the rest of the family.
Be included in family mealtimes.
Experience food in a way that feels less medical.
Have more control over what goes into their child’s diet.
Move away from relying entirely on commercial formula.
And sometimes it’s simply because you know your child and you want to explore whether something different might work better for them.
That doesn’t mean commercial formula is “bad”, and it doesn’t mean blended diet is automatically better. Both have their place. The important question is what is appropriate for your individual child.
Who should you speak to?
The best place to start is your child’s paediatric dietitian.
Your dietitian can look at your child’s individual nutritional requirements, growth, medical conditions, medications, allergies, fluid requirements and current feeding regime and help you decide whether blended diet is appropriate.
Depending on your child’s needs, you may also need input from:
Your community children’s nursing team.
Your paediatrician or gastroenterology team.
Your specialist feeding or gastrostomy team.
Other members of your child’s multidisciplinary team.
The BDA recommends that blended diet is considered through a shared decision-making approach, with the dietitian leading the nutritional and enteral-feeding aspects of the plan.
You don’t have to arrive at the appointment with a complete feeding plan. That’s what your healthcare team is there to help you with.
Questions to ask your healthcare team
If you’re considering a blended diet, it can help to go into the conversation with some questions prepared.
You could ask:
Is a blended diet appropriate for my child?
Is their current feeding tube suitable for blended food?
Will we need to change the tube or equipment?
What nutritional requirements does my child need to meet each day?
How much fluid will they need?
How many calories and how much protein do they need?
Are there any foods my child should avoid?
How should we introduce blends alongside their current formula?
What consistency should the blends be?
How should we manage medications alongside blended feeds?
What should we do if the tube becomes blocked?
How should blends be stored and transported safely?
What should happen if my child is admitted to hospital?
How will their weight, growth and nutritional status be monitored?
Who should we contact if we have problems?
It can also be useful to ask your dietitian what they would want you to monitor at home, so you know what changes are important and what is simply part of your child’s normal day-to-day variation.
What concerns might healthcare professionals raise?
It is completely reasonable for your healthcare team to have questions or concerns.
Blended diet requires more preparation than commercial formula and there are additional considerations around nutritional adequacy, food hygiene, storage, tube compatibility, consistency and the risk of tube blockage.
Your team may also be concerned about whether your child can receive enough calories, protein, vitamins, minerals or fluid from the proposed diet.
These are important questions and not reasons to panic.
A good blended diet plan should take these things into account from the beginning. Your dietitian can help you work out how to meet your child’s nutritional requirements rather than simply telling you to “blend their meals”.
It’s also worth remembering that different NHS trusts have different policies and equipment. Some tubes are not recommended for blended feeds, and local policies can affect what your clinical team is able to support.
What if you meet resistance?
This can be one of the hardest parts.
You may have done your research, spoken to other parents and feel strongly that you would like to explore blended diet, only to be told that your team doesn’t recommend it.
First, ask why.
Is there a specific medical reason why it isn’t suitable for your child? Is it their tube? Their medical condition? Their nutritional requirements? Their feeding method? Or is it simply that the professional isn’t familiar with blended diet?
Those are very different things.
You can ask:
“Could you explain what your specific concerns are about blended diet for my child?”
You can then ask whether those concerns could be addressed with support from a dietitian experienced in blended feeding.
The BDA recognises blended diet as an option that can be considered as part of personalised care. It also acknowledges that professional experience and local policies vary.
That doesn’t mean every child should be put on a blended diet. It means the conversation should be about your child’s individual circumstances, rather than simply dismissing the idea because it is different from conventional formula feeding.
If you’re struggling to get appropriate advice, you can ask whether your child can be reviewed by a dietitian with experience in home enteral feeding and blended diets.
Every child is different. There is no one-size-fits-all blended diet.
A recipe that works beautifully for one child may be completely unsuitable for another. Children have different calorie requirements, fluid requirements, allergies, medications, medical conditions, bowel habits and feeding tubes.
That’s why the recipes and information on The Blended Diet Family are intended to give parents ideas, practical information and confidence, rather than replace individualised clinical advice.
Your child’s healthcare team should remain involved in decisions about their nutrition and feeding.
And if you’re just starting out, you don’t have to change everything overnight.
For many families, introducing blended food gradually alongside their existing feed is a much more manageable way to begin. NHS guidance similarly recommends taking things slowly rather than feeling pressured to immediately eliminate prescribed formula.
Before you begin
Blended diet isn’t suitable for every child or every type of feeding tube. Before making changes to your child’s feeding plan, speak to their dietitian or healthcare team. They can help you decide whether blended feeding is appropriate and make sure your child’s nutritional, fluid and medical needs continue to be met.
The information on The Blended Diet Family is based on our experience and publicly available guidance and is intended for education and practical support. It does not replace individual medical or dietetic advice.
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