Feeding Tube Awareness Week: How enteral nutrition fuels their patients

IU Health’s enteral nutrition team helps patients who can’t take food by mouth receive the nutrition and supplies they need to fuel their bodies from the comfort of their home. Tube feeding is one of these offerings, and it delivers nutrition to a patient’s stomach or intestine instead of their mouth. Feeding Tube Awareness Week, Feb. 8-14, offers an opportunity to learn about this unique form of eating. Read on to understand common facts and fiction about tube feeding from Abby Deckard, clinical dietitian, and Melissa Lahn, senior clinical dietitian.

Tube feeding is only administered via a tube inserted directly into your abdomen.

False. “Some tubes are administered through the nose and terminate in the stomach or intestines,” says Lahn. “Others are inserted directly through the abdomen to terminate in the stomach and/or intestines. Tube feedings can be delivered using syringes, gravity feeding bags or feeding pumps depending on a patient’s needs.”

There is only one kind of feeding tube.

False. “There many types of tube feeding to meet the varying needs of patients,” says Deckard. “Some tubes are placed for longer-term use and some for shorter-term use. There are gastronomy tubes, or ‘G-tubes’ that feed through the stomach, jejunostomy tubes, or ‘J-tubes’ that feed into the intestine and nasogastric, or ‘NG’, and nasojejunal, or ‘NJ’ tubes go through the nose and then into the stomach or intestines.”

Tube feeding is permanent.

False. “While some conditions such as degenerative neurological conditions or permanent disabilities do require permanent tube feeding, sometimes tube feeding is essential for short-term periods as patients recover from conditions like head and neck cancers or pancreatitis,” says Deckard. “NG and NJ tubes, that go through the nose and then into the stomach or intestines, are usually placed for short-term use while G, J, or GJ tubes are for long-term use.”

Tube feeding patients can taste their food.

False. “Tube feedings are delivered to either the stomach or intestines and bypass the taste buds, so patients do not taste the formula,” says Lahn. “I have heard some patients prefer the smell of some formulas over others.”

Tube feeding patients eat the same food every day.

Sometimes. “The formula our patients take every day is the same, but the flavor of the formula can vary (i.e. strawberry, chocolate, vanilla or plain),” says Deckard. “Some of the blended formulas come in different varieties and in this case, the patient is receiving different food daily.”

Children and adults can get tube feeding.

True. “Tube feedings can be delivered to patients of all ages,” says Lahn. “But, over 80% of our patients are pediatric.”

Tube feeding patients and caregivers have support from the enteral nutrition team.

True. “We are in charge of troubleshooting the feeding pumps and providing pump teaches,” says Deckard. “We provide different feeding pumps with different functionalities depending on patient needs.”

Have more questions about tube feeding and/or enteral nutrition? Learn more here.