When you are recovering from burn injuries your body needs extra calories and nutrients. The size and severity of your burn will dictate how much more and when you go home from the hospital, your healthcare team should send a diet and nutrition plan with you. Your body uses a lot of energy during the healing process, even while you are resting, and it needs certain nutrients to heal effectively. Burn injury nutrition aids in wound healing and graft take.
Eating Enough
Your body is expending a tremendous amount of energy on repairing itself. It needs calories for this energy. You should try to eat about six times a day. This can consist of three regular meals with snacks in between or six smaller meals spread out throughout the day.
Your calories need to be nutritious. Sugary drink and sodas, including diet sodas, deliver empty calories and should be avoided. Juices, both fruit and vegetable, should be 100% juice. Be sure to check the label. Many juices are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup or another sweetener.
Protein
Your body uses protein to build new skin and muscle. You will need significantly more protein while healing from burns than you normally do. Try to eat at least two to three foods containing protein at each meal, and load up on protein-rich snacks. Cheese, nuts, yogurt, and boiled eggs all make easy protein snacks.
Supplements
You may need to take supplements as well. Burn injuries and the procedures used to treat them can deplete your body of trace minerals needed to use protein efficiently. You may be low on zinc, copper, selenium, and other minerals.
You may also need to increase your intake of vitamins A, B, and C. While it is preferable to get these nutrients from you diet, you may not be able to get enough from food and juices.
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