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Parents of Children with Kidney Disease

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Curious

M110m110 profile image
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I’ve just been diagnosed with CKD. I was wondering if it will be ok to eat just one meal a day

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M110m110
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MarissaA_NKF profile image
MarissaA_NKFPartner

Your nutritional needs should be discussed with your physician and dietitian. Generally speaking, your nutrition should be dispersed throughout the day, but your needs may vary from the norm. Your dietitian and physician should be able to help you get the nutrition to meet your specific needs.

You can find more information about nutrition here: kidney.org/category/diet-nu...

Lifealysis profile image
Lifealysis

YES! I've been eating one real meal a day ever since I started Dialysis decades and decades ago,.. Your body (and this goes for anyone) only really needs one meal a day to stay healthy. As long as that meal, (or a meal and snack) you're getting the right nutrients your body needs. ESRD patients have to take a special Vitamin made just for us called Nephro-Vite (the generic form is called Rena-Vite) This Vitamin helps, but we still need to maintain weight gain (for some of us with a high metabolism ) and proper protein to stay clear of other health issues! The best part is, we get blood labs drawn to keep track of all this! So balance those blood levels, and your diet becomes (not a piece a cake) but a little easier to maintain.

The way I do it: I eat one meal a day, could be anything. (I don't recommend anything, because everyone's health situations are totally different, and may have other health problems). When I say anything, I mean anything I like to eat. I should also mention, [I don't eat meat, chicken, or fish!] Then if I have a snack, it's only Healthier foods, and foods that aren't going to contribute to a drastic change in lab reports. Like high Phosphorus or high Potassium foods. But if your one meal was a low Phosphorus and low Potassium meal, then you could possibly have your snack as the drawback of those, in which they could be a little higher. (keep in mind this is also in regards if you're following the rest of the plan as a whole). If you aren't following the plan, then none of this will work.

The best way I find to manage parts of your diet, are to look at yourself. Find out what areas of y our diet are the hardest for you to manage on Dialysis. If it's Phosphorus, then go through your head or make a list on paper of all the things you love to eat, (but also HIGH in Phosphorus!) Then make another list of those items, and try to eliminate most of then! Also label the ones that are your absolute favorite food you would die for, then analyze what you have! The goal here is to eliminate most of that list! Especially if it's a long list! Because that would mean you like many foods that are also high in Phosphorus! When you do this, you take out the foods from the list you can live without, and you're also taking out the worry, stress (and potential health problems down the road) from the high Phosphorus issues from those foods!

When you're only eating a set number of *Bad Foods, it will drastically reduce the constant problem of high Phosphorus lab reports! Because you don't really have to think about it anymore, you're only eating things (which are limited) that are high Phosphorus, that are on your list! The rest are gone for good from your life! Which also gives you back a little "Normalcy" because you're not constantly thinking about what you can't have or can have. If you give it up, you're not eating it anyway! You don't need to think about it!

Yes this might sound drastic, but life on Dialysis is a drastic change! If you truly want to stay as healthy as possible, even healthier than people that don't have to go through this! You have to make drastic changes in your life.

Now I should also mention, [I don't take binders], [I don't have any kidneys at all], and I also only go to dialysis twice a week] I guess you would call this an extreme measure of balance. But if you can say to yourself, "Alright, I'm never drinking coffee every morning every again" (because I still want to eat this instead, or that which is also high in Phosphorus) If you can do this, you are on your way to a healthy life on Dialysis.

Give up a lot, to keep a little of what you love.

My diet works a little different for Phosphorus. There aren't many things I love that have high Phosphorus, so my high Phosphorus foods that I eat, are Beans and Nuts, (not because I love them) because that's where I get my Proteins from, (so I need them) because I don't eat any meat, chicken or fish. But I still like Soda, so I gave up Coffee, I still like Chocolate and a little bit of cheese, so I never drink milk anymore. I don't LOVE those things, but I do like them. So when I say love I mean, people eating or drinking something just about every day. Meat was high in Phosphorus, and I don't eat that already, so that also helped in my balancing act. So when you eliminate as much as possible, the whole balancing act becomes so much easier to manage and deal with.

Now the renal Dietitian will also help, but take a different approach of course...by trying to prescribe you a Phosphorus binder. If your diet is really out of control, you might have no choice but to take these. But if you have much self control, and you're eating just one real meal a day, you just might be able to get away without taking those binders!

Something else I will add that helps lowering Phosphorus, is sweating from exercise! Just be careful, because this works so well, you can actually cause the Phosphorus to go too low! This will also help you with Sodium retention and fluid gains, so it's a win win, but you also want to make sure you are healthy enough for the type of exercise that helps you sweat a great deal.

Overall, the less drugs you take, also the better your health will be! But if you can't or unwilling to manage your health without them, then you really have no choice!

Now something else to mention about how I work my diet. If for some reason under this program I have created for myself, goes out of control, and one of the Nutrients goes haywire! Then you have to take extreme and drastic measures, and just stop all high foods altogether, even the favorites on your list! This will lower your labs again to normal levels, and then you can start again what you were doing.

It's really just all about balance, once you learn to balance your diet, it becomes second nature. (But we are human and fall off the wagon once in awhile!)

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