The next best thing to being your personal blended diet dietitian? I hope so :)
Several years ago, when I first started Natural Tube Feeding, I intended it to be a private practice where I would provide nutrition care and personalized advice to tube fed people interested in having a real food diet.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that there would be some major challenges to this. One of the biggest issues was the fact that I am registered to practice dietetics in British Columbia (my home province of Canada) and can only care for people who also reside here. I used to also be registered in the United States, but this didn’t open things up all that much for me because there are many states that require state licensure and it isn’t feasible for me to become licensed in each of those states.
I realized that even though I was desperately trying to position myself to be able to provide support to people interested in using blended food for tube feeding, my direct patient care could only be provided to people in my province. After launching my website and recipe book, I noticed that I had website visitors from all over the world. I also started to get regular emails from people who wanted consultations, meal plans and advice on how to get started on a blended diet or improve their current blending practices. I also received countless emails from dietitians who had questions about blending and how they can better support their patients/families who wanted to use blenderized tube feeding. Clearly, there was a need for detailed guidance on using blended food for tube feeding...for both tube fed people and their family members, as well as dietitians.
I started thinking about how I could help more people. At some point I came up with the idea of making an online course that would be accessible to anyone looking for information from a registered dietitian on how to safely prepare nutritious blended meals for tube feeding. I knew from my own experience online that on demand videos are the most convenient way to learn something new. This got me thinking that perhaps a series of videos would be highly useful to my website users.
At this point, I need to remind you that I am a Registered Dietitian and Certified Nutrition Support Clinician….not a videographer, director, trained presenter or editor. To be honest, just running my website and making my recipe ebook had already stretched my limits and required me to learn whole new skill sets far beyond the scope of clinical nutrition. Could I really produce high quality informative videos that could provide an easy learning experience and come as close as possible to an actual personal consultation with me? I wasn’t sure that I could do it, but I had to try!
So, over the course of the pandemic, while continuing to work at the hospital and running my website, I started working on the course. This involved some major equipment purchases (an HD camera, lighting, new computer and external hard drive) and a LOT of learning about videography and video editing. To my surprise, I realized that although this would be another major challenge, I could do it if I pushed myself and put in the time and effort. It ended up taking a year, but finally it all came together and I am proud of the final product.
In the course, I share all the information and insight that I provide to my local in-person private clients and patients under my care in the hospital. I wanted to make sure that the course covers everything you need to know in order to make nutritious blends for yourself or your tube fed loved one.
So, although ideally everyone would be able to hire a private clinical dietitian who’s an expert in blended diets, that’s not realistic for most people for a variety of reasons. The Natural Tube Feeding Blended Diet Online Course is the next best thing. In addition to all the videos and resources, you also get access to me for your questions. I love hearing from my course members and answering their questions each month. In this way I feel that I am fulfilling my goal of supporting people who wish to have a blended diet for tube feeding and providing an opportunity for anyone to learn from me, regardless of where they reside in the world.
If you are interested in enrolling in the course, you can get all the details here. In the meantime, check out the course trailer and feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Like the Natural Tube Feeding Recipe Book, I guarantee your satisfaction as a participant in the Course, or your money back. I want everyone to be happy and feel like they got great value from their experience as a Course member.