Lylas Blends

As a mom of five young children, I experience daily how food choices make all the difference in health and behavior. After years of trying various formulated “food” for my tube-fed child, Lyla, nothing seemed to be working. The struggles felt endless. Not only was Lyla not growing as she needed to, she was irritable, not sleeping well, struggling academically and socially, vomiting almost daily, and no laxative on the market would help regulate her bowel movements.

I decided to take the plunge into homemade blends. It wasn’t as simple as blending up the meals the rest of us were eating. I needed to ensure she was getting all of the nutrients and calories she needed. The volume had to be right, and I honestly didn’t have time to blend food during meal times—the busiest times of the day. So I created some recipes.

I invested time and effort into experimenting with techniques to get the most nutrition out of every ingredient that went into our blends. I grew and processed the food myself. I found a way to premake meals that was efficient and effective.

The results have been life-altering. Not only did this drastically reduce the time and energy I put into food preparation, but my child was finally consistently getting the nutrition her body and brain needed to thrive. Within two weeks, my daughter was tolerating almost twice as much volume in a single tube feeding with no vomiting. Within two months, we saw huge improvements in her mood, sleep, social interactions, and academic performance. Within four months, her bowels were well regulated, we were able to increase her daily calories and volume significantly, and—shockingly—she began eating orally in spite of already being well fed.

For the first time, maybe ever, we saw what life could look like with a healthy, happy Lyla. Food was the answer.

It is my hope and prayer that Lyla’s Blends will improve the quality of life for many other tube-fed individuals, their caregivers, and their families.

~Katie Collett President Lylas Blends