Squeasy Gear

I had heard of a product called Squeasy Gear that many tubie mamas have mentioned using and loving. Needing a solution to some annoying problems I was having with feeding Bradley pureed food, I decided to give it a try. I have to concur with others. I love them!

Feeding pureed food is…messy. Annoyingly so. Especially on the go. When Bradley had a feeding tube, I would bring his food in a thermos or blender bottle. When it was time to feed him, I needed an easily accessible surface to set his food on because drawing the food up with a syringe required 2 hands. Such surfaces aren’t necessarily always available. And this is not to mention the difficulty at times with finding a place to store the container’s lid during feeding, which is often covered in a layer of pureed food. More mess potential.

Add to this is the fact that you have to put the syringe into the pureed food to draw it up. This means food is dripping on everything from the syringe. It’s not an easy process.

Now that Bradley is eating by mouth, but still requires pureed food, he can only eat from food pouches or bottles with a similar mouth piece as food pouches. I had found I needed to bring along what feels like a million small containers with his food and drinks. I was fed up.

So, I tried Squeasy Gear. What is wonderful is that they have a large, 16 oz container. On a long shopping trip, I was able to create 1 blend of 16 oz that included all the fluid and food he needed for the duration of the trip in one container. I packed it in a lunchbox with an ice pack. Easy peasy!

As we went to several different stores, Bradley slowly drank his blend little by little, mess free! I have worked out some blends for him in which he can receive his entire day’s nutrition and fluids with two 16-oz bottles and one 6-oz bottle. This makes packing up and bringing along his food if we will be gone from morning to night so much easier.

The snap lid on the top stays closed between uses in my experience. And, since the lid remains attached to the bottle when opened, there is no need to find somewhere to keep a food covered lid during feeding. When the snap lid is opened all the way, it remains in the opened position rather than falling forward and getting in the way when the bottle is turned upside down. Seriously, they thought of almost everything.

And if your child eats food through a feeding tube, this eliminates many problems as well. One BD mom noticed that the opening to Squeasy Gear bottles perfectly fits the tip of a 60 ml syringe. This means no need for a surface to put the food down on and no drips to worry about. Woo hoo!

As an added bonus, the opening of the Squeasy Gear bottles is large enough to easily pour directly from the blender right into the bottles. When Bradley was using food pouches, I would have to transfer the blend into a liquid measuring cup and then transfer it to the pouch. And who wants to wash extra dishes? And speaking of washing dishes, Squeasy Gear bottles are very easy to clean with a bottle brush.

If you prefer smaller bottles, Squeasy Gear comes in 3.5-oz and 6-oz sizes in addition to the large 16-oz bottles. They are made of silicone and are dishwasher safe. While I have not personally tried it, I believe Squeasy Gear bottles would work great with Nourish, Liquid Hope, and Real Food Blends as well.

I will mention that those that use very thick blends may have trouble with Squeasy Gear as it would be difficult to draw it out of the bottle. My only “negative” to report about my use of these bottles is my wish that they would have a 9-oz bottle as well rather than jumping from 6-oz bottles all the way to a 16-oz bottle.

Squeasy Gear was so delighted when they heard that their products were of such help to the tube-fed community, they offered a special discount specifically for tubies and their families. Nice! Contact the company to ask for the discount code when ordering.

*I was not given any financial compensation for providing this review nor was I asked by Squeasy Gear to review their products.

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**If you haven’t done so yet, check out my new children’s book, Tom Turnip’s Plant Foods Adventure!