From February 9-15, 2014, Shield HealthCare is proud to celebrate the fourth annual Feeding Tube Awareness Week® with the Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation.
Feeding Tube Awareness Week raises public awareness about the positive benefits of tube-feeding. A feeding tube is a lifesaving medical intervention that provides essential nutrition and hydration. This annual event gives us the opportunity to celebrate the positives of tube feeding, and to be thankful for the role enteral nutrition plays in helping our children to live, grow, develop and thrive.
Awareness Week also educates our communities about the medical reasons for tube feeding. More than 200 conditions and diseases can require tube feeding in children, and many of them aren’t visible. For this reason, the need for tube feeding can be misunderstood by friends, family, and others in our community. Feeding Tube Awareness Week helps create an atmosphere of understanding and support for families who face the day-to-day challenges of raising a tube-fed child.
The theme for Feeding Tube Awareness Week 2014, “Nothing Can Hold Us Back,” celebrates the resilience of overcoming challenges, and highlights how nutritional support makes this possible. These precious members of our community thrive because of the dedication and devotion of their families, and because of the necessary nutritional support they receive through tube feeding.
The Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation is a non-profit organization that provides support and information to parents of children who are tube-fed. Their mission is to provide a helpful forum for for tube-feeding families to ask questions and share resources, and to raise positive awareness of tube feeding so that families have the support they need. Learn more at feedingtubeawareness.org and on facebook.com/FeedingTubeAwareness.
Other Helpful Resources:
Shield HealthCare’s on-staff Registered Dietitians are available to answer questions, make recommendations and provide nutritional support for tube feeding at home. Call your local office or visit us at www.facebook.com/shieldhealthcare.
Shield HealthCare’s online Nutrition Community regularly provides enteral nutrition newsletters, home tube feeding tips and evidence-based nutrition information. See the latest enteral nutrition related news and articles at Shield HealthCare’s Nutrition Community.
Looking for a tube feeding support group? Try these Tube Feeding Support Groups and Resources.
Shield HealthCare | Medical Supplies For Care At Home Since 1957
Feeding tubes are not just for children – they benefit adults as well. My husband uses a feeding tube as his main source of nourishment. He has MS.
Robin, you are absolutely right! Tube feeding benefits people of all ages. Although the Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation is focused on providing support to parents of tube-fed children, it is important that we recognize the life-saving support and positive benefits of tube feeding in adults as well. We will continue to support awareness and provide resources for people of all ages! Thank you for your feedback and your continued support.
20 years ago when our daughter was put on a feeding tube at about 6 weeks old I was grossed out, terrified, and assumed it was just temporary. Now it’s a way of life; she loves “hiking” in her wheel chair, going swimming and traveling to Mexico.
Our awareness (and that of several friends/family members) was definitely raised. I applaud your awareness foundation.
Lorna, thank you so much for sharing your experience, and for giving us a glimpse into your beautiful family! We are proud to partner with the Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation and help raise positive awareness of tube feeding, so that families who share your experience have the resources and support to help their loved ones thrive.
My daughter is not a child however she has a feeding tube . It’s how I give her,her meds keep her hydrated. It’s a part of her new life and it’s great that people get better educated on feeding tube and the many reasons that they are need.I would also like to thank Shield Health care for all the helpful information they always share.This is the first time I ever respond but I am a faithful reader and believe you can never learn to much . Thank you so much Shield Health care and everyone that works there and helps people like me better understand. Please keep sharing.
Maria, thank you so much for your kind response! It is our privilege to share resources and offer support to people with feeding tubes and their families. Thank you for being a faithful reader, and for taking the time to share your appreciation.