what do you feed your cerebral palsy child?

Question

i need to know what to feed my 16 year old cerebral palsy daughter who has been on abby food and feding tube bt she's only 80 lb so she need real food so what can i feed her??

i asked my doctor and he said what we eat but process it
but we eat stuff she doesnt liek.

i was just curious on what people do feed their children like that.

Answer 1

I would work together with a speech therapyst on oral stimulation (chewing, swallowing). It would help on her chewing , so in the future she could eat different textures, even chunky food too.

I teach children with CP, and my experience is that processed food works out well, but you also can mix cakes, cupcakes, crackers very well with applesuace and pudding.
But if you wanna make sure that your child is well nourished, I would also give some Pediasure, or other products that would be nourishing too. Or you can just process food that she likes, and high in energy, and calories (and vitamins too!!)
She might be burning too much calories, or her metabolism is too fast, but once I had a 16 year-old who was 1.6 tall, and was 85 pounds, she had a CDG-syndrome (congenital disorder of glycosylation) besides CP.

Answer 2

I have a friend whose daughter has cerebral palsy. She loves milk shakes especially oreo (as long as your child doesn't have a problem with lactose) She blends them really well, not thick. And they aren't very cold either.

Pediasure or ensure are also used to help with weight gain. You may try slim fast. BUT you have to use it with regular feeding. Slim Fast has a large amount of calories and many flavors. If feed her in addition to the slim fast INSTEAD of as a meal replacement weight gain will result. This is why so many people say they gain weight on slim fast because they don't skip meals which means they actually have a high calorie intake. Our son Kyle is very skinny always has been, he eats a lot often but just doesn't gain weight. He didn't like the pediasure flavors, so our pediatrician suggested slim fast in ADDITION to regular meals, not as a replacement.

I hope your able to find your daughter something more she enjoys.

Answer 3

My advice is not an answer but a suggestion or something like it. It is that whatever other people put on this post, reccomending however many things, it is better to either go to your doctor and get advice tailored to your childs needs and condition, or find advice on a cerebal palsy website such as "www.scope.org.uk". I'm sorry I cannot be more precise but you can get a more concise answer from the specialist CP websites than from a yahoo answers user.

Answer 4

It would be wise to ask her doctor for a list of food for her to eat.