Feeding Tube Awareness Week
Feeding Tube Awareness Week
Feb 6 – Feb 10th
In 2011, Feeding Tube Awareness launched the first annual Feeding Tube Awareness Week®. The mission of Awareness Week is to promote the positive benefits of feeding tubes as life saving medical interventions. The week also serves to educate the broader public about the medical reasons that children and adults are tube fed, the challenges that families face, and day-to-day life with tube feeding. Feeding Tube Awareness Week® connects families, by showing how many other families are going through similar things, and making people feel less alone.
Feeding Tubes and Dup15q
Hypotonia in newborns and infants with maternal dup15q is associated with feeding difficulties and gross motor delays.
Oral motor dysfunction should be assessed at each visit to assess feeding issues due to hypotonia. Evaluations for measurement of growth parameters, nutritional status, and safety of oral intake are recommended.
Clinical Feeding Evaluations and/or Radiographic Swallowing Studies should be obtained for:
- choking/gagging during feeds
- poor weight gain
- frequent respiratory illnesses
- feeding refusal that is not otherwise explained
When feeding dysfunction is severe, a nasogastric (NG tube) or gastrostomy (G tube) may be necessary. The most common type of feeding tube is the gastrostomy (G) tube. G-tubes are placed through the abdominal wall into the stomach. This sounds scarier than it is. The G-tube surgery can be performed in three ways: surgically through small incisions using a laparoscope, surgically using a larger open incision, or endoscopically using a scope into the stomach to create the stoma from the inside.
Check out this facebook live from our past Big Give Event where parents of individuals with dup15q discuss g-tubes. https://youtu.be/TPyt3oBkzgo