The Blend Magazine

Offering a fresh, honest and empowering approach to tube-feeding, THE BLEND explores how people and families who rely on enteral and parenteral nutrition live, adapt and thrive. The magazine is a premium, coffee-table worthy resource brimming with beautiful photography, practical advice and stories that celebrate resilience, normalise medical devices and foster connection among those navigating life with feeding tubes.

the blend.

Welcome, friend, to The Blend. • A message from the editor, Melanie Dimmitt

Glossary

Gut feel • For the uninitiated, tube-feeding can be scary, sad and, let’s be honest, a kind of gross concept. How can we come to terms with this different way of eating - and the emotions that come crashing in around it - as efficiently and painlessly as possible?

An ode to my tubie

Meet the makers.

Sarah Thomas • When Brisbane mum Sarah Thomas was told that her son, Lewis, would be PEGfed, she was determined to feed him what his twin brother was eating - real, nutritious food. Four years later, her business, Wholesome Blends, is helping countless other families do the same.

Sarah’s sweet potato, tomato and chickpea curry

Stacey Phillips • Stacey Phillips has been tube-feeding the youngest of her three sons, Callum, since he was a newborn. To avoid obsessively Googling Callum’s conditions, this crafty Queenslander busied her hands with what would become her business, Tubie Fun, Australia’s one-stop shop for cute and colourful tube-feeding accessories.

Creamy chicken & brown rice soup

Sealed with love • The founder of The Travelling Tubie Project shares how one simple, sweet gesture led to smiles for tubie families far and wide.

Ali Howell • Finance expert Ali Howell and speech pathologist Emily Lively came together through Ali’s daughter, Saskia, and her tube-weaning journey. Now, the duo are creating nutritionally formulated blended feeds through their freshly-launched venture, WHOLE Enteral Nourishment.

Parent stories.

Amy Purling • Nurse Amy Purling was no stranger to an NG-tube but says nothing can prepare you for the day-to-day realities of tube-feeding your kid. Nowadays, while working and raising her boys James, 5, and Jack, 2, Amy supports families of premature babies, like her own, through her Miracle Mumma community.

Jack’s fave zucchini slice

Eron Barnett • A single Facebook comment from Eron Barnett changed our early tube-feeding days from dire to doable. Here, the Melbourne-based mother and special-education teacher-in-training shares what she’s learned from a decade of blending meals for her daughter, Sarah.

Sarah’s cauliflower fried rice

Jessica Gowans • After a stock-standard pregnancy, her son arrived with a metabolic condition - and he’s only half of psychologist Jessica Gowans’ tube-feeding story. Here, the co-founder of the Macarthur Tube Feeding Families Facebook group tells me what she’s learned while raising two tubie kids.

Kids’ noisy smoothie

On the go • Perth-based mama Erin De Jussing is getting out and about with her tube-fed son, Wyatt, thanks to a little help from their Kangaroo enteral feeding pump.

Be not afraid of my body • A photo series by Kate Disher-Quill in collaboration with the SUCCEED Child Feeding Alliance, supporting children with complex feeding needs.

Professional perspectives.

A crash (and in no way comprehensive) course in the history of tube-feeding

Lina Breik • The Australian medical sector has been slow to explore and embrace blended tube-feeds as an option for tubies - but Melbourne-based dietitian, Lina Breik, is working to change this. Here the founder of Tube Dietitian explains her ‘pro-choice’ approach to enteral nutrition and busts some common myths...