Just to follow up on this, I have made some changes. I have discovered that the Carnation VHC product it just too rich for me.

Generally these supplemental products have the effect of causing the old constipation problem. With me it has been just to opposite. Thus I have switched over to Ensure. Believe it or not, the Chocolate tastes so damn good that I am actually drinking it and not putting it down through the tube. Of course I now am doing 10 cans of it versus the 5 cans of Carnation, but it is not a problem. I just do two cans at 6, 9, 12, 3 and 6, or there abouts. I am still waiting for my dietitian to let me know how much "free water" there is in this towards my hydration. I should find out later today.

As for hydration, I am now using Kool-ade instead of Gator Ade, and just adding a bit of salt to it. All I need to figure out now is how to avoid the teeth staining that it is doing. My gums are so sore that I cannot apply sufficient pressure to get it off. Blue teeth are not the best in the world to present to clients when one smiles.

For those concerned with hydration and feeding tubes, there is a wonderful organization that is for the support of people on either feeding tubes or TPN dependency. Their link is

http://www.oley.org/

(I am a regional coordinator for my part of the country for this group, and I can honestly say that they have very good information, and for long termers they have regular conferences where you can get good information as well as get together with others who use the same "appliances" to feed.

Anyway, there is an excellent article in their most recent newsletter about oral (or gt) rehydration solutions, link is

http://www.oley.org/lifeline/ORS%20Article%20-%20Dr.%20Kelly.pdf

My last link is a page of recipe's with several different ways to make an ORS (oral rehydration solution) at home, though not quite as accurate as the packets you can purchase (we get ours from our home care with the exact WHO formula in it) they are reasonable substitues...

http://www.rehydrate.org/solutions/homemade.htm

hope this helps a little!

Heidi (Mom to the bravest boy I know, and daughter in law the bravest woman I know...)