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Feeding Tube Awareness Week: Supporting patients via nutritional interventions

Feeding Tube Awareness Week is a week aiming to share patients' stories spreading the awareness of the day-to-day patient life with feeding tubes, enteral nutrition and the nutritional benefits of it to the healthcare professionals community and to the general audience.

Why is tube feeding essential?

Tube feeding is an essential nutritional support when nutritional requirements cannot be met orally. It consists of special medical tube feeds and devices to deliver nutrition directly into the stomach or the intestine of patients who are unable to consume food in an usual way. This could be a result of an illness and/or surgery in which patients are temporarily or permanently unable to swallow. Tube feeding can be a temporary feeding solution in acute conditions, as well as long term nutritional solution in chronic conditions. When indicated, enteral tube feeding is used in patients of all age groups (elderly, adults, paediatrics and pre-term) for the dietary management in a wide variety of conditions across all care settings at hospital and in community.
 

Discover our patients’ stories to better understand different tube feeding situations:

Iben

Iben’s journey

Iben is a lively six-year-old diagnosed with Rett syndrome, a neurological condition that impacts her motor skills and communication. Since she was a baby, her parents noticed challenges with feeding, as Iben loved food but couldn’t always eat enough. Mealtimes often took over an hour, leaving her parents worried about her nutrition and growth.

After a year of consideration, Iben’s family decided to start tube feeding with guidance from her care team. The transition was smoother than expected, and within weeks, Iben was more energetic and gaining weight. Now, she receives tube feeds as needed, allowing her to join family meals without the pressure.

Tube feeding has given Iben and her family more time to play, explore, and enjoy each day together. Their advice to others?

Just do it—it’s worth it!

- Iben's family

Roxanne’s journey

Roxanne is 16 years old and was tube-fed when she was younger and then stopped. However, she recently lost too much weight and now needs it again.

Although Roxanne and her mother, Mireille, were initially reluctant to reintroduce tube feeding, they are now seeing the benefits. With the necessary nutrition, Roxanne has regained a healthy weight.

Her mother, Mireille, also sees the positive impact on the whole family.

To hear her full story, please watch the video.

I now have the energy to meet friends and go to my choir - activities I hadn’t been able to do for a long time. I got my life back.

- Roxanne

Rudolph's journey

Rudolph is 66 years old and a true expert in tube feeding, having lived with it for 42 years. He has short bowel syndrome, meaning his body cannot get all the nutrition it needs through regular eating.

Rudolph's health conditions require continuous feeding but he still leads an active life. He loves to travel, which is still very much possible—it just takes a bit more planning and preparation.

He believes he can live to a very old age with tube feeding and do so happily.

To hear his full story, please watch the video.

Don't make tube feeding THE problem in life; it's just one of the problems in life.

- Rudolph

Educational materials

We support healthcare professionals, parents and patients in the initiation of Tube Feeding and the continued journey towards healthy growth with fun, educational and caring materials so that nobody ever has to feel alone.

Introducing tube feeding to children can be challenging, and we’re here to help. Our beloved characters, Ben the Bear and Rita the Rabbit, are designed to make tube feeding less intimidating and more understandable for kids. Through engaging storybooks, videos, and interactive resources, Ben and Rita explain tube feeding in a way that kids can relate to—empowering them to feel comfortable and confident on their journey.

Explore our dedicated materials crafted for healthcare professionals, parents, and young patients to make the transition to tube feeding smoother and more reassuring.

Meet Ben the bear

Ben The Bear

Meet Ben! The story about a strong bear boy and his gastronomy button.

Download Ben the Bear Booklet

Rita The Rabbit

And this is Rita! Discover how she uses her nose tube to grow big and get all the nutrients she needs.

Download Rita the Rabbit Booklet
Meet Rita the rabbit

Nutricia: trusted to deliver high quality enteral nutrition for over 50 years

At Nutricia we understand the importance of optimal nutritional support. We continually improve our enteral nutrition to offer innovative feeding solutions tailor made for every step of the enteral tube feeding patient journey. We see the person behind the patient and apply our deep understanding of their nutritional needs and the latest medical insights and guidelines to the development of our ranges. We offer a comprehensive range of tube feeds for adults and paediatrics, enteral feeding devices and accessories, complimented with services to help provide the best care.

Nutrini Nutrinimax range

Paediatrics portfolio

Tube feeding can be a temporary feeding solution in acute illness conditions (e.g. critical illness) as well as long-term life-sustaining solution in chronic illness conditions (e.g. neurological disorder). Paediatric-specific, nutritional feeds have been successfully used in clinical practice for many years to meet the entire or partial nutritional requirements of patients, offering important benefits including microbiological safety, standardized consistency, nutritional content and can be formulated to meet the specific needs of a particular disease or condition. 

Find out more

Adults portfolio

Every tube feeding journey is unique and the nutritional needs of an adult patient can vary depending on the phase of his or her journey. The Nutricia Adult Tube feeding portfolio is thus composed to meet various nutritional needs. We offer Nutrison tube feeding solutions for patients with critical conditions as temporary feeding solutions in acute illness conditions as well as long-term life-sustaining solutions in chronic illness conditions. With Nutrison, Nutricia has a tailored range of tube feeds, providing different levels of energy, protein, vitamins, minerals and/or fibre content , adapted to the specific nutritional needs of the patient and his health conditions.

Find out more
Meet Ben the bear
Meet Ben the bear

Enteral feeding devices

Enteral feeding devices consist of a combination of a feeding tube, an administration method and accessories to deliver the liquid food and hydration fluid directly into the stomach or the intestine of the patients who are unable to consume food in an usual way. 

Flocare’s range of medical devices, accessories and supporting tools have been developed to simplify tube feeding for patients, carers and their families, because Nutricia strongly believes that feeding routine should fit comfortably into a patient’s routine.

Find out more

Nutricia’s tube feeds are Food for Special Medical Purposes and must be used under medical supervision.

Critical Care Nutrition & Medical Devices

Patients who require ongoing nutritional support via enteral (‘tube’) feeding can now use medical devices at home that are intuitive...

Find out more

Discover more about Nutricia

Inspired by our founders and their early support for mothers and their infants, we’ve transformed the lives of millions of people around the world.

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Are you a healthcare professional or (carer of) a diagnosed patient?

The product information for this area of specialization is intended for healthcare professionals or (carers of) diagnosed patients only, as these products are for use under healthcare professional supervision.

Please click ‘Yes’ if you are a healthcare professional or (carer of) a diagnosed patient, or ‘No’ to be taken to a full list of our products.

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The information on this page is intended for healthcare professionals only.

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