Feeding Tube Awareness Week
When food can't be taken orally, feeding tubes come to the rescue, providing vital nutrition and medication to those who need it most.
Position your medical device, nutrition, or support services as empowering solutions for feeding tube users and their families during awareness week.
- Share patient stories: how feeding tubes restored independence and quality of life
- Educational guide: demystifying feeding tubes for caregivers and the general public
- Spotlight on nutrition products designed specifically for tube-fed patients
- Community spotlight: connect families managing feeding tube care through support networks
The Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation started Feeding Tube Awareness Week in 2011 as an annual event that would help inform people about feeding tubes and their role as important life-saving interventions.
Additionally, this holiday helps to alleviate some of the mystery around the reasons someone may have a feeding tube, and what challenges are faced by those who live with them every day.
Through this holiday the Foundation helps to unite families and connect those who are facing similar struggles so they can experience the benefits of an active support system.
Feeding tubes were invented as a way to eliminate the need for enema based nutrition supplementation in the medical world. The enema process was slowly phased out in the 1800s after the introduction of surgically implanted feeding tubes, and while the overall technology has improved the actual use of feeding tubes remains much the same almost two centuries later.
Whether a patient suffers from a condition that prevents normal feeding, such as paralysis or surgical recovery, or is otherwise in need of these devices (such as patients with advanced dementia) feeding tubes can vastly improve quality of life and speed recovery for these patients.