I am the carer of a relative recovering from tongue cancer who cannot eat any food not blended. I am starting to run out of ideas for new recipes. We had fish chowder tonight which included potatoes, carrots, leek. creamed corn, fish and prawns. He said it was okay but to creamy this is an issues as the ulcers in his mouth are also producing a large amount of saliva and anything salty or spicy stings. So I am in an impossible situation as he needs to have the milk and cream to increase his weight. I was thinking of a pork, potato, leek and apple stew which will have to be blended what can I add to give flavour without causing him pain.

If you are not already doing so, home made chicken, lamb or beef stock will add lots of flavour and nutrition to any savoury purée. When my late husband was recovering from throat cancer treatment he could manage carrot soup made with chicken stock and thickened with egg yolks and a little cream.

I endorse what TPANDAV says. I had surgery for tongue cancer 5 years ago and eat almost normally now. The first food I really enjoyed and could swallow was home made chicken broth. Look up bone broth recipes if you need to, it is so healing and comforting when well made. It's concerning that post surgery he has ulcers? Too much, and too little, saliva can be an on going difficulty. I relied on the substitute liquid 'whole' foods for quite a long time. It does, gradually, become easier. I was triumphant the first time I managed a soft boiled egg! It took me half an hour but I did it! Add protein powder to breakfast smoothies for extra calories. He should be having visits from a dietician. Mine was so young and inexperienced I felt I advised her rather than the reverse!

Thank you for the advice Tpandav I have been making chicken soup with veg and noodles. All soups need to be made fresh on the day his taste buds are currently going crazy something he eats today will be vile the next day. I want to try and get more protein into him and build up his weight and energy levels. At the moment he is only 2 weeks post chemo and radiation therapy, so you could say I sometimes have a 2 year old to deal with but I just ignore the nastiness as I am aware it is only the pain. I am going to try the pork with leek and apple today and put potato and pumpkin mash on the side. Now to find a fruit he can eat might get a half rockmelon and blend that also might see if I can get a custard apple (not sure if they are in season). Stephanie39 so good to hear that you are doing well I look forward to the day he can eat a meal which hasn't been blended as it can all taste the same after a while. The ulcers in the mouth were caused by the radiation therapy, which has created a lot of problems. The dietician isn't much help all they do is dish out the expensive protein drinks, I might go to the hospital with him on Friday and talk to her myself and let her know that they are no help at all when it comes to recipes for this type of cancer.

Evass so sorry to hear you're both dealing with a nasty situation. I was wondering if smoothies made with ice cream or full cream milk rather than yogurt, and perhaps ripe banana or stewed sweetened apple added plus H*rlicks powder or similar might be something he could tolerate?

All the best from Adelaide

So sorry to hear you're dealing with this (and sympathies too to TPANDAV and Stephanie39 for having it/having someone close with it in the past too). it sounds like a difficult thing to cater for. Does your relative like peanut butter (or any nut butter, but peanut butter is the most reasonably priced)? There are lots of recipes for smoothies that include it, and it adds protein and good fats without the "creaminess" of cream.

Thank you for the ideas unfortunately we have been down that path for smoothies it is hard when he can't eat a lot of the fruits you would normally put into a smoothie. Anything that has acid ie: apple, berries cannot eat at all due to the ulcers caused by the radiation. And the mucus from the ulcers has now given him thrush in his mouth gets better doesn't it and he has to drink the milk protein drinks. Hates banana's (damn this would have been so easy). Jelly floates around inside his mouth as he doesn't have control of his tongue yet. Plus now been informed may need to go back to surgery to fix his jaw. This only gets better and more difficult. Today he managed to get down some chicken and sweet corn soup (with potato and carrot added). I am making his milk drinks with Isustain and Advital and he is also drinking resolve protein drinks. Breakfast is easy he has 2 weet-bix with advital, honey, carnation evaporated milk and some milk. Then later he will have 2 eggs scrambled again with the advital, evaporated milk and milk. The advital is a protein powder which I can use to thicken his soups prior to blending. As his weight is now down in the mid 60kg thank goodness it has stabilised over the last 2 weeks, I am trying everything to make his meals easy to eat (due to the ulcers he has to numb his mouth to eat and it only lasts for 10-15 min). Any suggestions are welcome. By the way the pork was a no go today hated it even though it was slow cooked with his veggies. Currently ice-cream is out of the picture even though we have a supply of his special ice-cream in the freeze. All drinks must now be warm I will ask him how he feels about trying a drink with peanut butter or maybe I will just try and sneak it into one of his drinks. Dietician at the hospital (useless) all they want to do is stick that damn tube up his nose sorry this isn't going to happen I will force feed him if I have to.

Sorry to hear it's so difficult, evass - best of luck!

I hope your relative appreciates what you are doing for her or him Evass. There are commercially available products the hospitals use which you can buy, I did have a list when my husband was having swallowing difficulties which the hospitals were using. Did,being the operative word. All I know from trying my best to make food beautiful for my husband and looking like vomit at the same time, is that you can't win. I'm not sure the patient you are trying to help fully understands the difficulties a carer goes through trying to provide the nutrients of life to sustain them.

I was in a vege shop ages ago, and overheard the woman in front of me saying that there was very little her husband could eat due to mouth cancer, but the one thing he could really cope with was overripe persimmons. She let them go soft and mushy and worked wonders for him.