Before the decision for enteral feeding is made a thorough evaluation of pros and cons should be discussed by the medical team in charge and the child’s caretakers. In this slideshare presentation you will learn about main reason for enteral feeding, what are the advantages and benefits that it can bring to your child, as well as negative side effects of tube-feeding.

1. Side-Effects Of
Long Term Enteral Feeding In
Infancy and Childhood

2. The main reason for enteral feeding (feeding by tube) is the
coverage of an adequate nutritional intake in cases when oral
feeding does not meet the required needs.
Although there are many advantages of temporary tube
feeding there also are some disadvantages.
Main Reason For Enteral Feeding

3. Advantages of enteral feeding
The most important advantage of temporary tube feeding is its life-
sustaining nutritional function. A sufficient enteral nutritional supply
can help to ensure better thriving as well as the child’s general
development in cases when oral intake is decreased or impossible for a
predictable period of time.
Children should benefit from this intervention so that they are able to
recover and grow. A medical indication and definition of clear goals are
necessary before tube placement.

4. Theoretical Background
Common negative side effects are:
Psychological stress in the affected families
Negative impact on general development through recurrent vomiting
Retching
Gagging
Tube dislocations and other direct complications of the tubes.
Aim Of The Study
Evaluation of non-nutritional side-effects in a sample of 268 tube fed
children over a period of 3 years.

5. Method
Nausea
Sweating
No hunger
Vomiting
Retching
Skin irritations
Granulation tissue
Gagging and description of other symptoms in an open response format.
Retrospective statistical analysis of a parent documented medical
questionnaire. The questionnaire included questions about the
following symptoms:

6. Results
Most children came from:
Australia (19.8%),
USA (16%),
Germany (14.6%),
Austria (13.1%) and
Great Britain (10.8%).
175 had a NG- and 93 a PEG- tube.
All patients were predominantly dependent on enteral nutrition.
The mean age was 2.16 years.

7. Results
232 (87%) patients reported negative side-effects.
Almost every child in this sample showed at least two negative side-effects.

8. Tube Weaning As The Exit Strategy
Before the decision for enteral feeding is made a thorough
evaluation of pros and cons should be discussed by the medical
team in charge and the child’s caretakers.
Furthermore it is important to have an exit-strategy like
Notube’s Netcoaching.

9. Learn About Different Kinds Of Feeding Tubes, What
They Entail, And What It Means For Your Child

10. Thank You for Your Attention !