MEAL PLAN FOR PATIENTS WITH EATING DISORDERS UNDERGOING GRADUAL RE-FEEDING (+ PATIENT MENUS)

Sodexo at Lehigh Valley Health Network

I created a 7-day meal plan suitable for eating disorder patients in an inpatient setting. Day one of the meal plan starts with 1500 calories and gradually increases throughout the week to 2500 calories on day seven. Gradually increasing calories for malnourished patients reduces the chances of Re-feeding Syndrome. Re-feeding Syndrome is caused by a potentially fatal shift in fluids and electrolytes once nutrition is returned to severely malnourished patients too quickly. 

Each day of the meal plan is balanced with protein, carb, and fat. This includes meat, grains, fruit, dairy, fat, and vegetables. It is structured to have 3 meals with snacks in between meals and a dessert after dinner. There are also alternative vegetarian meal plans for each day as well for vegetarian patients. 

Once I completed the meal plans, I created the patient menus for each day. Each day the patient's menu consisted of the regular planned diet and the vegetarian planned diet beside it.