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 Issue Two was created in partnership with…

Glossary

A message from the editor, Melanie Dimmitt

The age of the tubie • Think you’re in a niche? News flash: You’re not. The global tube-feeding community is growing, getting attention and giving the medical sector a much-needed shake-up.

5 minutes with THE MAKERS • We met them in Issue One of The Blend and, 12 months on, these tubie business owners are continuing to crush it.

Personal accounts.

Chronically creative • Megan Fisher was a bodybuilder, champion equestrian and member of the British Army Reserve when, days after having her first child, she developed maternal sepsis. Since then, a landslide of conditions has dramatically impacted her body – but a new passion also emerged. Meet The Chronic Makeup Artist, a beauty influencer whose feeding tube launched her rise to fame.

Acquired taste • With a chronic inflammatory condition and lengthy list of allergies, 18-year-old Alexander Vane has lived on commercial formula through a G-tube since he was seven. However, a new medication has this New Zealander feasting on a delicious array of foods for the first time.

Tubie to be • Journalist Kate Thomas will soon have a feeding tube placed. In an effort to face her fears around this looming unknown, she interviewed two people who are tube-feeding and making it their own. Here’s where Kate’s curiosity led her.

Strong stomach • Told he’d be eternally tethered to a feeding pump, Pedro Relvas spent the next two decades kicking that prognosis to the curb. Here, the South African-born, Brisbane-based body-sculpt athlete and coach shares how he’s made tube-feeding work for him.

Professional perspectives.

G-tube feeding 101 •  New to the great, life-changing device that is a gastrostomy tube? Take note of these top tips.

The seasoned expert • She’s been helping families tubefeed for seven years. But despite this Michigan-based registered dietitian’s years of experience, Hilarie Dreyer remains ever-curious – and hones in on parent intuition.

The gut healer • Paediatric gastroenterologist Usha Krishnan is passionate about tummies. She was one of the experts who developed the AuSPEN consensus statement for blenderised tubefeeds, so who better to ask how this diet is changing the enteral-feeding space.

The ultimate connector • When Sarah Gray’s toddler was diagnosed with a chronic inflammatory condition and later began tube-feeding, the Sunshine Coast-based mother felt entirely alone. But rather than wallow and whinge, she rescued herself – and created a community for countless families like hers.

Catch-up with tube-fed artist, Kathryn Lean

The Nil By Mouth Foodie • Despite having a digestive system that won’t let her eat, Loretta Harmes hasn’t lost her appetite for cooking. And since sharing her story and culinary talent with the world, she’s been relishing all life has to offer.

Parent stories.

Tubie truths • They can’t always eat when they’re hungry, the number on the scale doesn’t tell the full picture and, no matter what, things will be OK. These and other hard-earned lessons spill freely from Toronto-based Nina Alhambra, whose four-year-old daughter has transitioned off her G-tube.

Smashing it • Tube-feeding came as a shock to Eliana Joseph when her baby son, Luke, entered the world on a wave of...