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| The Fresh Squeeze Station by Infantino |
I have received the Fresh Squeezed Squeeze Station from Infantino to facilitate my review. I will give a bit of background on my son because he is not a "typical" 4 year old. My son was born nine weeks premature. He spent the first six months of life in the hospital. He has had two open heart surgeries, two abdominal surgeries and suffered a stroke at ten weeks old. He has had some sort of feeding tube since birth. He receives all of his nutrition via his feeding tube. He has an intolerance to lactose and a severe gluten allergy. Because of this his food has to be specially prepared.
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He was about a week old here. His feeding tube is in his mouth (OG Tube)
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| He is about 3 months old here. He has a NG tube here (white). |
My son's diet is different than most tube fed children. I give him real blended food thru his tube. A lot of parents in the tube feeding community have begun to do this due to feeding issues (vomiting, reflux, allergies, formula intolerance). Some parents have been doing it for years.
When parents opt to do a blended diet the volume, calorie count and nutritional values are VERY important. I was very excited when I first read about this product. In the past I have used baby bottles to store his blended food. This takes up a lot of space. I tend to blend veggies and protein for one day and fruits with grains on the next day. My son still gets some formula so this is why I alternate his daily foods.
His feeding tube now. It is a Button Feeding tube.
So I have used the product ...
I really like the pouches. The spout fits easily into the feeding extension. A gentle squeeze on the pouch delivers the food effectively. There is no loss of food. The four ounce pouch can be given to my son in about ten minutes. I can easily track volume and calories.
The feeding station is a great concept and I was very excited to use it. However I was a bit disappointed once I did. There is a lot of food loss when filling the pouches. It comes up around the plunger.
Note food around plunger.
It was a bit time consuming for me so I tried it with our syringes. It went much faster and it I was able to know exactly how much was in each pouch. As I said volume is VERY important in our world.
This was prunes with rice cereal, honey, coconut milk and coconut manna. It stored and froze wonderfully. Actually everything I have made has done very well except spinach. The liquid would come out of the pouch but all the spinach stayed behind!!
All in all the concept is great but a few minor changes could make it better.
- Graduation marks on the filling tubes.
- A more complete seal on the plunger system.
- Bigger pouches (6 ounce and 8 ounce)
I am sure parents with orally eating children will love this product. It is also great on the go!! Thanks to Infantino for giving me the chance to preview this product. I am sure the Tube Feeding Community with give this product a try!
Feeding on the go!
Yummy!
Freezer storage.
