Low Sodium School Lunch Ideas

Here are my first 5 school lunch ideas for under 400mg sodium (check the labels please and make sure of your brands sodium count). Not all are healthy per say but definitely kid friendly. People with kidney disease are on all different types of restriction so please make sure this fits with your doctor's orders.

Grilled REAL cheddar cheese sandwich (not processed stuff but 1oz slices REAL cheddar) grilled in unsalted butter, grapes, chocolate soy milk

1/2 large bagel with low fat cream cheese and 1 slice chopped cooked bacon (turkey or low sodium), orange slices, chocolate soy milk

English muffin pizza (made with no salt tomato sauce & pizza seasoning) topped with 1oz shredded mozzarella cheese, served with spinach and green leaf salad including chopped hard boiled egg, and water (my kids won't eat cooked spinach but they love the spinach leaves). My son loves an olive oil/vinegar blend dressing (we send it in a small container on the side so he can pour on at lunch time)

Black bean & brown rice burrito (cook up a batch of dry black beans, save some for other dishes.) Cody likes black beans, add the brown rice and cumin, garlic powder and 2 Tbsp salsa - heat on stove. We add a little water to "hold" the ingredients together. Serve with carrot sticks and homemade hummus

PB & J sandwich, applesauce, 2 chocolate chip cookies (check the labels and make sure you get the smaller, lower sodium ones)


When school starts, I will be sure to post pictures of what I send with him that week along with measurements. Send lots of fresh fruits and veggies as fillers - this prednisone makes him HUNGRY!!!!

Have a good day everyone! :)

What Cody ate Today

Breakfast: Banana/Flax/Walnut/Peanut Butter Oatmeal
Well - just visit this link for the recipe and you'll
get the idea! I just found the site KERF (Kath Eats
Real Food) recently and love it! Will be going back
for more whole food type recipes.

http://www.katheats.com/?page_id=2032

Total sodium = about 100mg

Cody's thoughts - he loved it but wanted a little more brown sugar (most of what you see in the pic is ground flax seed - he only started with a Tbsp of brown sugar and we went up to 2 Tbsps)





Lunch: One of Cody's faves - we just did it one day and it stuck. We call it No Sodium Spaghetti - that's just how he differentiates between that and regular. It's basically noodles (which he chops up with scissors for some reason which is why it looks like rice kinda) with olive oil, italian seasoning, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes. With it he had a spinach salad and 2 tsp light ranch dressing.

Total Sodium = about 131 calories for the 2 tsp of light ranch
He loves this dish because on Prednisone the appetite seems to increase ( a lot!!!) and he can eat as much of this as he wants (without dressing). We keeped cooked noodles in the fridge for him to warm up in the microwave.





Dinner: Pork Chop (4oz center cut = 290mg sodium)
Homemade mashed potatoes with unsalted butter
and pepper (0mg sodium)
Extra Fine Frozen Green Beans (3mg sodium)

We used Mrs. Dash original seasoning blend on the
pork chops and Cody loved it!

Total Sodium = about 293mg sodium.

For snacks today Cody ate an apple and 1oz of real cheddar cheese (179mg sodium)



Today's total sodium = 524mg.

Yes he is allowed to eat 1200mg per day but we are just trying to eat healthier, whole foods. Today's low day may mean he gets to eat something higher tomorrow (normally it's mexican or italian for him).



Right now I am working on school friendly lunches to pack so he doesn't feel so different from the other kids but last year when I was packing lunches for my boys and we were focusing on healthier - not low sodium - he never wanted to trade because his friends wanted some of HIS lunch

Thanks for coming!!

Stacy & Cody

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Low Sodium Diet

Sorry it's been so long since our last post. Later tonight we will be posting what Cody ate today for an example of a low sodium diet that is under 1200mg sodium. We will be including pictures and Cody's thoughts on the dishes.

Thanks for everyone's support and to those who keep coming back for updates.

Stacy

Morning Routine

Every morning here is what happens:

*Cody wakes up, pees in his urinal, we use Albustix to check for protein

*He checks his weight

*We take his blood pressure

*Record all of the information in his notebook for our next doctor's appointment.

If your child only has IgAN, he/she will not be doing these things most likely. If they have IgAN with Nephrotic Syndrome, problems with retaining fluid, high protein spillage, or high blood pressure then they most likely will be doing some of this.

For new parents out there, this is not a long term thing. Cody will be doing this until 1)his protein is trace or negative for at least 3 days in a row or 2)he is off the prednisone.

We were only checking his protein levels until he started swelling in the abdomen, back, and in the genital area (which he had never done before) and we were told that the prednisone can cause you to retain salt and fluid (enter 1200mg low sodium diet here along with 4 cups of fluid per day - unless he's doing sports and sweats a lot then the nurse told us to go ahead and give him more) and losing high amounts of protein in urine causes oedema. Once that happened, the nephrologist told us to monitor weight and blood pressure also.

About My Biopsy

When I got in the room they laid me on the bed. They put a clip on my finger that told them how fast my heart was beating. They put cartoons on so that I felt relaxed. Then they turned me on my stomach they squirted a gell on me and rubbed it on my back. It tickled me!!!!!! Then they put a medicine in my IV so that I would go to sleep and not feel anything. It didn't hurt it felt like cold water going up my arm. My mom and dad were with me the whole time. I fell asleep. I didn't feel anything. When they were done they put a bandage on my back. When I woke up my mom and dad were right by me holding my hand. Then I had to lay flat for six hours in my room. On my first picture that was when I got in the room and they laid me down. In the second picture later that night the person that did my biopsy came to check on me and see how I was doing.

Taking My Medicine

When I took my first pill I was a little scared. The second time it was easier. The Fish Oil I poke a hole in it and squirt it in my drink. I think that is easier. I only have to take them in the morning. I am used to it now. The first time I took my medicine my doctor said to put it on the back of my tongue. I think it is cool to take pills that help my kidneys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Tomorrow I will tell you about my biopsy.

Cody

Helping Your Child Take Medication

Cody and I were talking about what we should blog about next.....it seemed natural to discuss medication since that was the next step for us after getting diagnosed. Cody will post his own thoughts on this later this evening for all the kids out there to read. When you come on here with your child, if you scroll down, on the right side, there will be a section titled "find posts by category" then underneath you will see one of the links titles "A Kid's Perspective" - this will include ALL of Cody's posts so when your child is reading on here (and hopefully sometime commenting to Cody) they will see ONLY Cody's posts.

Anyways, back to medication. Here is an article on ways to help your child take their medication (if they've been prescribed any yet - not all are).

Pill Swallowing: Helping Your Child

Some children have difficulty swallowing pills and capsules.

*The easiest approach is to convert the medicine to a liquid form. Empty out the capsules or crush the pills. You can do this with any pills except slow-release or enteric-coated pills. (Check with your pharmacist or physician if you are uncertain what you can do.)

*Slow-release capsules can be emptied as long as the contents are swallowed without chewing. Since capsules usually contain medicines with a bitter taste, the contents need to be mixed with a sweet food.

*Pills are usually made as a convenient alternative to the liquid form, and they may not taste bad. Pills can be crushed between two spoons. Crushing is made easier by first moistening the pill with a few drops of water and letting it soften for 15 minutes.

*Place the pill or capsule far back on the tongue and have your child quickly drink water or Kool-Aid through a straw. If your child concentrates on swallowing (even gulping) the liquid, the pill will follow downstream without a hitch.

Model for your child the steps in swallowing a pill:

*Place a pill on the back of your tongue.
*Keep the tongue flat.
*Take liquid in the mouth.
*Tilt the head backward slightly.
*Swallow.

Here is a link to that article
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/HealthAZ/Pill-Swallowing-Helping-Your-Child.aspx?articleID=8784&categoryID=

Please check with your nephrologist first before doing any of them. We got permission to poke a hole in Cody's fish oil capsule and drain it into soda or juice. Two of the others are quite small and the prednisone he will sometimes swallow whole and sometimes break in half depending on his mood LOL.