Bringing food to hospitals

[snowangel]

I'm just remembering that as I took care of the sick in hospital, I always took real dishes, flatwear and cloth napkins. I hate paper plates, hate paper napkins, and hate plastic forks worst of all. A garnish is nice. Be it a small vase of pansy's from the garden or whatever.

Totally un-food related, the patient should have a framed photo of loved one(s) at the bed side.

[Marlene]

It was a good food day yesterday for the patient. I took cookies, beef stew and lazagna to him as well as some no pulp orange juice. He's not eating much at any given time, but by the end of the day, he had finished one container of beef stew 4 cookies, 1/4 of a sub sandwhich and 3 single servings of orange juice. We were able to get him into a wheelchair and took him outside for a bit. He enjoyed that so much, he polished off a doughnut I bought at the coffee shop.

I love the idea of milkshakes. Calories and calcium at the same time. I have a milkshake maker. I wonder if I could get the supplies there without them melting?

He's also asked me to make some creamy garlic soup which tells me he's getting his taste for spice back a bit. I'll make that up on Sunday to take on Monday.

He has pictures of his loved ones and I brought him a set of flatware yesterday. I brought him enough food yesterday to last for a few days, while I think about what to make up for the coming week.

I also need ideas for foods that will help rebuild muscle. As I mentioned, there's been tremendous weight loss and the operation cut through a serious amount of muscle and tissue along his spine.

You might want to think about taking your lunch/dinner too and sharing the mealtime, even if you are not eating exactly the same menu. Eating alone, or worse, being fed alone, is not an appetizing way to eat.

.

This is also a good idea, which might also remind us to eat! His girlfriend and I spent 8 hours at the hospital yesterday and I don't think either of us had anything more than a coffee and a tea.

[glossyp]

I love the idea of milkshakes.  Calories and calcium at the same time.  I have a milkshake maker.  I wonder if I could get the supplies there without them melting?

←

If you are taking the supplies at the hospital, the best way to get them there is with an insulated cold bag (you can find the ones that look like soft totes at sporting good stores) and a couple of frozen gel-ice packs. If you make them at home, freeze the milkshake (I found that a glass Mason jar insulated very well) and you can thaw it by placing in the microwave 20 seconds at a time until you get the right consistency, stirring between bursts.

And, as helenjp mentioned and you noted - don't forget to eat yourselves - you're just starting a relatively stressful period and your health and nutrition are important as well. Best wishes to all.

[Madge]

Marlene:

I have been working in hospitals for 35 years and the "walking food" has always been an issue. I could fill pages with the horrible incidents I have had to deal with. How totally civilized that the hospital near you has fridge and micro for a 4 bed group. Is this Oakville Trafalgar Hospital?

You are a good friend and I am sure your friend appreciates your kindness. Last summer a friend of mine was having chemo and I went with her a couple of times a week. We talked about everyone we had ever known and laughed and laughed.A couple of the nurses said we were having "way too much fun" While she thanked me at the time it is just in the last few months she has told me how much it really meant and that something she dreaded became "kinda fun" I am sure your friend will feel the same way. She was fortunate that she was able to go out for lunch and a beer afterwards so we made a day of it.

From reading your posts on other subjects it would seem to me that no matter what you make it will be delicious and full of love. Keep on, keeping on.

[Anna N]

I am following this with much interest. A very close relative will be undergoing extensive surgery for cancer in less than two weeks and it is a relief to know that I can feed him whatever he wants! He will want milkshakes and sundaes and such and, as far as I know, he will not be facing any dietary restrictions. I do not yet know if the hospital will allow food to be brought in but will find out and take some of these ideas to heart. Thanks, Marlene, for starting this thread.

[snowangel]

I love the idea of milkshakes.  Calories and calcium at the same time.  I have a milkshake maker.  I wonder if I could get the supplies there without them melting?

←

Is there a grocery or market near the hospital? Is there a freezer in his room or one on the floor where patients can store frozen stuff?

[Marlene]

I could only wish it was OTMH. I wouldn't have to spend an hour and bit on the road every day. The hostpital is Scarborough General.

Anna, most hospitals these days will allow food to be brought in. They realize it's in the patient's best interests to eat and if that means bringing stuff in, they say go for it. Most patient lounges have a small fridge and microwave in them as well.

[AmyDaniel]

I just remembered what I'd crave when I was sick and still at home: sometimes with leftover chicken legs that didn't go into the curry, she'd make her own chicken soup. She'd saute onions, garlic, and ginger till soft and fragrant, then add the chicken and water to cover. She'd let the soup simmer till the chicken was cooked through, and during the cooking, she'd add a chopped tomato or two. Seasoned well with salt and pepper, it was good equally on its own or over rice.

Yum; I love this. It's great "sick" food and good comfort food as well.

[culinary bear]

I once had a request from a hospitalised friend to bring in cold chicken curry. :)

A side point - it's always a good idea to be discreet about bringing food in for patients; not because the staff may not approve of the idea but it can be unfair to triumphally waft a steaming casserole full of something good through a ward full of people who don't have the luxury of friends bringing in nice things for them.

[Marlene]

A side point - it's always a good idea to be discreet about bringing food in for patients; not because the staff may not approve of the idea but it can be unfair to triumphally waft a steaming casserole full of something good through a ward full of people who don't have the luxury of friends bringing in nice things for them.

←

Fair point. I always cook enough for an army and it's been no hardship to bring enough food for everyone in his room. We've also made sure that we have enough for everyone when we've brought take out to the hospital. We had a chinese food fest on Friday night and there was enough for everyone in his room, my family, and the nurses!

[Rachel Perlow]

Marlene's patient is lucky that there's a fridge for the exclusive use of him and his roommates. When my dad was in the hospital, we had to use the one down the hall. I don't think anything walked, but it helps to label anything you put in there very clearly (with patients name, room/bed number, and contents). Not just so that others don't take it, but so that the patient can ask someone else to retrieve something from there when you are not around. If it is clearly labeled (like with a bold sharpie marker), that will be facilitated.

My suggestions are a variety of soups and stews. Put about a cupful in pint sized microwavable containers. If they are frozen, they need to be able to be stirred, that's why the extra room. Someone else suggested deviled eggs, that sounds like a good way to get in the extra protein he needs to heal muscle tissue, without being too heavy on the meat.

[Susan G]

Rice pudding with raisins? Lemongrass chicken soup? Popsicles?

What has he enjoyed so far? If he's used to eating with family, scheduling visits around mealtimes so he can talk and eat at the same time may be very soothing.

Good luck! And eat!

[jsolomon]

Re: food-stealing scum in hospitals

There is a post on placebojournal.com somewhere about how a physician took care of his lunch-stealing scum by putting a placebo sandwich in the refrigerator... that had LOADS of sliced habanero peppers on it. You may want to try that in the pt access fridge to see if it grows legs in the first couple of days. Good news is, you'll probably break the thief of his/her habit.

Your best bet for finding out what is good to bring vs what is bad to bring is to speak with one of the staff dieticians. They are usually given orders from the physician of type of diet for the patient. Then, they are in charge of making sure that consults and orders to the kitchen are given. Usually if you ask one of the helpful nurses or other staff, they will direct you as to how best to contact the dietician (and which one to talk to if there are multiple dieticians available at the hospital).

Aside from those pieces of advice, I'm with Jason and Steven. Calories are key. The hospital will make sure your buddy gets the nutrition he/she needs, so be slightly careful with superceding their food, but feel free to augment as diet/hunger allows. If the dietician says, "bring all you want, and we'll provide a multivitamin," you're golden. Cook it up and pile it on.

Also, bless you for brightening people's days whilst in the hospital.

[highchef]

I would just add that ginger is great for fighting nausea, candied ginger is excellent to have on hand just to nibble on. chopped up finely in scones it is wonderful and lots of calories if you use heavy cream.

as an aside, when my mom wouldn't eat she was prescribed a pill that is derived from marijuana. it's legal (they took the 'good stuff' out) but expensive and the Dr. would have to prescribe it, but gave her a big case of the munchies....little piles of junk food all day long, and she'd eat regular food pretty well too!!

[Pan]

I would just add that ginger is great for fighting nausea, candied ginger is excellent to have on hand just to nibble on.[...]

←

That's a great idea.

Some fennel for fennel tea is also good for nausea, and peppermint tea is a soothing general tonic.

[Marlene]

Re: food-stealing scum in hospitals

There is a post on placebojournal.com somewhere about how a physician took care of his lunch-stealing scum by putting a placebo sandwich in the refrigerator... that had LOADS of sliced habanero peppers on it.  You may want to try that in the pt access fridge to see if it grows legs in the first couple of days.  Good news is, you'll probably break the thief of his/her habit.

Your best bet for finding out what is good to bring vs what is bad to bring is to speak with one of the staff dieticians.  They are usually given orders from the physician of type of diet for the patient.  Then, they are in charge of making sure that consults and orders to the kitchen are given.  Usually if you ask one of the helpful nurses or other staff, they will direct you as to how best to contact the dietician (and which one to talk to if there are multiple dieticians available at the hospital).

Aside from those pieces of advice, I'm with Jason and Steven.  Calories are key.  The hospital will make sure your buddy gets the nutrition he/she needs, so be slightly careful with superceding their food, but feel free to augment as diet/hunger allows.  If the dietician says, "bring all you want, and we'll provide a multivitamin," you're golden.  Cook it up and pile it on.

Also, bless you for brightening people's days whilst in the hospital.

←

He can have anything he wants, no restrictions and he flat out refuses to eat the hospital food. We found the cafeteria today, and if they were supplying the patients with food, more of them would be eating I think. We got them to make my patient 2 fried egg sandwiches which were devoured in seconds. He also ate a butter tart, two cookies, some chocolate milk and some orange juice.

I've been instructed to stay home tomorrow to make lazagna (again), butter tart squares and oatmeal bars.

[Marlene]

Alright, I have an urgent request for help here. My patient has requested deep fried chicken wings. Now, do I do these the same way as I would fried chicken? Soak in buttermilk, then deep fry?

He doesn't want "saucy ones, nor heavily breaded ones. So someone help me. I've got tons of chicken wing pieces in the freezer, I just need to figure out how to make these tonight.

[culinary bear]

That's how I've done them in the past, but I lightly coated them in seasoned flour first, just to absorb the excess milk and ensure cripsness - not enough to form any sort of major coating on them.

[jsolomon]

If you're not doing culinary bear's method, you'll want to dry the wings somewhat first before you place them in the oil.

[Marlene]

Ok, soak in buttermilk, drain, coat lightly in seasoned flour and then deep fry?

[culinary bear]

Yep... put the drained wings on a cake rack or similar and let them drip dry for a couple of minutes before tossing them in a bag of seasoned flour, then deep fry at a moderate heat for about 8-12 minutes.

[Marlene]

excellent. I'll go start the soak now and deep fry them later tonight or first thing in the morning.

[Pookie]

I have worked in Healthcare food service for many years now. We used to have a phamplet that we gave out to families wanting to bring food in to patients. It pretty much just said what you have already been told in this thread with additional info on food safety.

Also, If you ask nicely, sometimes food service supervisors and dietitians can authorize cafeteria meals for patients. That way you could be assured of another good meal each day.

I think Scarborough Hospital is on a retherm system where all the meals are plated cold and reheated. It's pretty crappy food.

You might also want to consider things like pudding packs and granola bars. Things to keep bedside that dont require any prep.

[mizducky]

Y'know, this brings up a whole other (though related) question: why *does* some hospitals' food have to be so inedible? Is it simply a matter of cost? Other issues being more pressing? Something else I'm completely missing here? Because I honestly don't believe institutional food *has* to be wretched.

I totally understand that, since a hospital's first job is being a hospital not a restaurant, and they have to pump out meals for hundreds of patients, they're not going to have food service equivalent in quality to a good hotel's room service. And I also realize that many patients need to be on restricted diets because of their condition. But I've seen hospital food go by that makes even my old high school's cafeteria lunches look like gourmet eating. It takes some doing to make food quite that dreadful.

Given that eating well is so crucial to regaining one's health, shouldn't producing food that patients actually want to eat be a major part of a hospital's mission?

(Edited to reflect that some hospitals do better than the ones I've experienced...)

Edited May 17, 2005 by mizducky (log)

[Marlene]

I honestly don't know the answer to that question, but I can vouch for the crappiness of his current offerings at the hospital. I was there last night when he got his dinner tray. I really couldn't tell you what it was other than the overall colour was grey.

I've just made this for him. A four layer lasagna.

.

(don't tell my brother, but I snagged a piece for myself)

I'll cut it into single size servings and put it in containers. His girlfriend can freeze some of them for later.

The butter tart squares are in the oven now and the chicken wings are soaking. I'll fry them up just before I leave the house tomorrow morning so they'll be nice and fresh for him.

I've also got some Oatmeal to go bars for him and a large water bottle with a straw. Thanks for the idea of getting someone to authorize cafeteria meals for him. I'll ask about that tomorrow!