Dialysis - What Should You Eat in an Emergency Situation?

It’s not a matter of if, but when. Ever thought about how an emergency situation would impact following a Dialysis-Friendly diet? You don’t have to look hard to know an emergency situation could occur at any moment and force you to make major changes to your diet to stay healthy.

Tornadoes in the midwest. Earthquakes and fires on the California coast and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Hurricanes in the Gulf Coast and along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. In winter, a snow or ice storm could shut down power and roads. In summer, a heat wave could cause a power surge and blackout. And if Mother Nature isn’t the cause, man-made disasters could limit your ability to get to the store to buy fresh food to follow a Dialysis-Friendly diet.

What would you do? What would you eat? And how would you survive, if you didn’t have access to daily or weekly dialysis treatments? These are questions people like to avoid thinking about, but being prepared can make a big difference.

Stock up on Dialysis-Friendly foods

If you want to be able to weather an emergency and maintain your health when you have kidney disease, you need to be prepared.

Your dietary goal in an emergency situation: Follow a strict diet to avoid dangerous levels of potassium, phosphorus, urea, and fluids, that are usually removed during a dialysis. Be prepared with at least a three-day supply of:

• White bread
• Dry cereal
• Vanilla wafers
• Canned fruit
• Cranberry or apple juice
• Powdered drink mix
• Canned tuna or salmon (low sodium)
• Peanut butter (unsalted)
• Evaporated Milk
• Marshmallows
• Jellybeans
• Honey
• Jelly
• Cooking oil
• White sugar
• Water (five gallons)
• Medications

If you lose power, food in the fridge is safe to eat for up to 12 hours. And the food in your freezer will keep for about two days. But after that, if you don’t have access to any other food, eat three smaller servings per day from this list of emergency foods to avoid getting sick without dialysis treatments.

You may also want to consider buying a generator to power your fridge, freezer, microwave, and other small appliances. In an emergency situation, this would make following a Dialysis-Friendly diet a lot easier….and tastier.