Details about a Liquid Diet after an Alveolar Bone Graft
As of today, Levi is all finished his liquid diet! Three weeks of recovery down…woot!
Today, the surgeon has given him the all clear to move on to
soft foods. He still can’t chew using his
front teeth, so he will cut things up into smaller bites and move them to his
back molars. He won’t be able to have
anything hard or crunchy for another 6 weeks or so. The tissue covering the bone graft is still
quite soft and fragile, so we want it to continue to heal as fully as possible
before something disturbs the site.
I learned so much about a liquid diet during these past
three weeks, and I felt I should share some of my research in case there are other families in need of some help. It was hard for me to find much information on
liquid diets online that weren’t designed for weight loss. There were a few websites that talked about liquid
diets after dental surgery, but mostly they just told me to “blend anything and
everything, and add cream to make it more liquidy”. This sounded absolutely awful to both Levi
and me! The taste and texture of a concoction
like that didn’t sound appetizing at all.
So, I set out to create a meal plan that would satisfy two
criteria:
1) That it would be appetizing to Levi (so that he would
actually eat it)
2) That we could maintain his weight throughout the three
weeks
I’m pleased to say that we succeeded on both points!
My biggest goal was to maintain his weight, which we did. Losing weight would have slowed his healing, and
he did not have any extra weight to lose in the first place. So, we weighed him every morning, and
adjusted his calorie intake accordingly.
As for taste and enjoyment, we figured out some pretty yummy
recipes. I’m not saying Levi wasn’t tired
of liquids by the end… because he was. Especially
soup! He was a rockstar though, and
rarely complained about the situation.
Now, on to some details about our preparation and execution. When I learned about his surgery in June, I
started to compile some ingredients that I knew we would need. The hospital had given us a list of ideas for
ingredients and recipes. I used some of the
information on there to add to my grocery list ahead of time.
I knew that some of the meal replacement drinks would be
expensive, so I wanted to budget more efficiently.
I also purchased some extra yogurt while it was on sale, and
froze it until we needed it. Just a note,
I discovered that yogurt freezes well, but only when the milk fat percentage is
quite low. The higher fat Greek yogurt
that I froze was quite runny when I thawed it.
When we saw the dietician in the hospital right after Levi’s surgery, she didn’t tell me specifically how many calories we should aim for Levi to have each day. She just said to focus on protein and fat and monitor his weight.
Those were the guidelines that I operated on,
so the following products were purchased with the intent to increase the fat
and protein in his meals. She mentioned
that meal replacement drinks (such as Boost) were an option, but were not
necessary. I decided to occasionally use Boost, but I did not rely on it.
In the first couple days of his liquid diet, we struggled to
find recipes that would give him enough calories, but were a small enough
volume to fit in his tummy. Many basic yogurts,
ice creams, etc. didn’t have enough calories in the volume that he could
physically ingest in one meal. He’s a
small kid, so I needed to figure out a way to increase the calorie count while
decreasing the volume. The following list includes some of the products I found that helped with that.
Most of my research was for his breakfasts, snacks and desserts. Lunch and suppers were always soup, which were lovingly pre-made for us by family and friends. (Thank you, thank you!!) Often I would strain the soup, and he would just have the broth. His favorite soup by far throughout the three weeks was Zumma Borscht (a cream based potato and sausage soup).
He struggled a bit with texture throughout this experience. He didn’t like soup to be too thick, and he didn’t like smoothies to be too runny! We worked together to adjust the recipes so they were to his liking. I wanted him to be vocal about whether it was appetizing to him, because I needed him to eat well and often.
I will post some specific recipes in part two, but I wanted to list
some of the ingredients that I found the most helpful.
Here are some of my favorite finds:
COMMONLY USED INGREDIENTS (and my reasoning for using
them):
-
Boost Plus Calories (vanilla, chocolate,
strawberry)
o
This formed the base for many smoothies and milkshakes,
but I didn’t rely on it as his only source of nutrition, since the sugar
content is quite high. I specifically bought
the version labelled “Extra Calories” so we would have more calories with less
volume.
-
Liberte Plain Greek yogurt (10% MF)
o
I was quite pleased to find a 10% MF yogurt. Along with a higher fat content, it also had some
protein, and only 5 g of sugar per serving.
-
Liberte mediterranean dessert collection (9%
MF)
o
I purchased four flavors: Coconut, Mango, Apple
pie, Key lime pie (there is a raspberry flavor, but raspberry seeds don’t blend
or strain well)
o
These were a favorite, since they had a good fat
and protein content, and great flavors.
I didn’t have to add much to make them taste good.
o
Note: we did have to strain the coconut yogurt,
as coconut does not blend well.
-
Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream
o
I wanted a high calorie vanilla ice cream, and
this hit the mark. It has 360 calories per
¾ cup serving. I added it to his dessert
milkshakes for an extra boost of calories.
-
Adams 100% natural peanut butter
o
My goal with this purchase was to increase protein without
increasing sugar.
- Table Cream - 18%
o o I used this to make some base recipes, and easily add calories. I didn't want to use whipping cream, since I felt that may be too rich and potentially upset his stomach.
Skim milk powder
o
This was one thing that the post-op sheet
recommended. It adds calories without adding
liquid bulk. I’ll talk more about how I
used this in my next post about recipes.
-
Pediasure (only if needed, as it doesn’t
have as many calories as Boost)
o I wanted to love this, since it has less sodium than Boost, but I only ended up used this at the very beginning of our adventure, since I realized Boost Extra Calories was going to be necessary
NUTRITIONAL ADDITITIONS:
-
Nutridom Kids Multivitamin powder (11
vitamins, 6 minerals)
o We
needed a way to give him a multivitamin that wasn’t a tablet or gummy. We could have dissolved a tablet, but this
was much easier to mix into his smoothie every morning. Take note: the label says “unflavored”, but
it definitely has a fruity tang to it.
-
Dream protein (24 g serving has 17 g whey
protein isolate, 5.4 g whey protein concentrate and 600 mg inulin) – French
Vanilla Flavor
o We
added half a scoop of this into his smoothies now and then. The dietician requested that we aim for about
30 grams of protein daily, so a full serving of this would have almost met his
requirements for the day. We didn’t need
to add that much extra into his diet, but it was nice to have the option of
adding protein without adding liquid.
-
Boost Just Protein powder (21 g serving has
18 g protein from whey protein isolate) - unflavored
o I purchased this as a way to add extra protein into his soups. It dissolved quite nicely, and didn’t change the flavor of the dish. Since the Dream Protein (above) was French Vanilla flavored, we couldn’t add it to his savory dishes.
I hope this was helpful for those who may be going through the same process, and interesting for those who just wanted to read a bit more about our experience.
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