Enteral Feeding Sets

Enteral Feeding Sets

If you can’t safely chew or swallow, tube feeding (enteral nutrition) may help you meet your nutritional needs.enteral feeding sets A feeding tube is a soft, flexible plastic tube through which liquid nutrition travels. A healthcare provider may also administer medicines through a feeding tube.

The main reason to use a feeding tube is to provide nutrition to a person who can’t eat normally due to illness or injury.enteral feeding sets But there are other reasons a person might need to use a feeding tube, too. These include delayed gastric emptying, a condition called gastroparesis; a problem with the stomach or intestines like an obstruction, decreased blood flow to the stomach (ischemic bowel), or severe intestinal disease such as Crohn’s disease.

Some people need to use a feeding tube for a short time, while others may need a long-term enteral nutrition solution.enteral feeding sets In general, the main type of enteral tube that is used is a nasogastric or orogastric tube (also known as a nasoenteric or nasojejunal tube), which starts in the nose or mouth and ends in the stomach or small intestine.

The tube can be inserted into the mouth, nose or through an artificial opening in the abdomen. In some cases, a medical professional will choose a feeding tube that goes through the esophagus into the stomach instead of the throat, which is called an nasoesophageal or nasoesophagus tube.

An enteral feed is a mixture of food and water, sometimes with other nutrients, that is given through the tube. A person who is on a tube feed will need to follow the diet that is prescribed by their doctor. Some of these diets are thick, some are liquid and some are solid.

Enteral feeding tubes are used to supply liquid food, fluids and medicines into a person’s gastrointestinal tract. They can be given by gravity or by using a pump.

When a patient receives enteral feedings, the head of their bed should be elevated 30-45 degrees for bolus and continuous feeds to reduce aspiration. A syringe can be attached to the feeding set to inject medicine or a liquid flush.

A trusted enteral feeding pump, set and tube is essential to ensure a safe, reliable and simple tube feeding routine. Nutricia’s Flocare range of feeding pumps, sets and tubes has been developed to make it easy for patients and families to follow the tube feeding advice they get from their healthcare professionals both in hospital and at home.

Tags:enteral feeding tube