Has anyone had a baby who was fed via NG tube?

[Tasia 10]

Hello,

My baby girl is nearly 5 months old and was born with gastroschisis which is an abdominal wall defect causing the intestines to float outside the body. She had to have 4 operations and she was on and off feeds. She now would not take bottles so she is fed via NG tube in hospital and will go home with it. I was wondering how to transition from tube to bottles once we get home. Any experience?

[danni123 10]

Nothing like your situation but my baby was born premature and stayed in Special Care for over 2 weeks, finally coming home just before Christmas still being fed by the NG tube. 2 days or so after coming home he was already full bottle feeding. We had to use the bottles and teats from the hospital as he found these easier to use than normal bottles but he came off them about a month later.

Most babies in Scbu are ng tube fed and this makes it a lot easier in the staff there. There just isn't enough people to wake every baby up and bottle feed every 3 hours or so as needed and feeding by tube is a 2 minute job for them. I found that when we went home and I had the time to wake him every time he should be having a bottle that he got pretty used to the fact he wouldn't be sleep fed anymore and would have to suck from the bottle. Give your baby time and try with bottles as much as you can, he will quickly learn sucking on a bottle is how he will be fed.

[mrseggy 10]

A whole thread of other tube feeding parents on Mumsnet, I think this might be the best place to find support.

 

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/1930008-taadaa-shiny-new-gastrostomy-support-thread-no-3-tube-feeding-support

[DaisyDoo12 10]

You should ask for speech and language input as they will help you with this. Also when ng feeding it is recommended to give your baby a dummy as this helps them associate having something in their mouth with feeding as well as stimulating saliva and gastric juices. Hope it all goes well for you and your baby but if you have any problems then definitely ask for help.