Tube weaning
Under tube weaning means the transition from the artificial feeding by probe to an oral diet. The term is used with infants and young children. Tube weaning most often takes place in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). It is usually carried out by pediatric nurses in collaboration with the parents.
The focus of the support lies in improving the child's oral motor skills and in accompanying the parents when dealing with their child. The goal is - due to the positive cognitive outcome - the transition from tube to breastfeeding .
Infants or toddlers who experience tube weaning very often suffer from the phenomenon of tube dependency or dependency. This is understood to mean the unintentional physical and emotional dependence of an affected person on a probing originally planned as only temporarily in the absence of a medical indication. Permanent feeding through a tube results in a development deficit in the development of the child, which is why its removal often appears to be indispensable.
literature
- Lenie van den Engel-Hoek: Feeding disorders: A guide to eating and drinking problems in young children . Schulz-Kirchner Verlag 2008, ISBN 9783824805235
- M. Dunitz-Scheer et al .: How do we get off the probe ?! Diagnostic considerations and therapeutic approaches for interdisciplinary tube weaning in infants and toddlers. In: Children's Nurse 19 (2000), pp. 448-456.
