Enteral nutrition is about the administration of the necessary nutrients to get adequate nutritional support through the digestive tract, without the need for the child to eat natural foods by mouth. Probes with which the oral feeding stage and the esophageal stage of digestion are suppressed are used for this type of feeding.
Apparently, more and more children receive this type of food for a long time at home. This allows a greater benefit, both for doctors and for sick children, as it avoids unnecessary hospital admission and allows the child to be much more comfortable at home.
But this type of food, despite being safe and effective, requires adequate training of health personnel regarding procedures and how to use it, since there is a risk of offering inadequate nutritional support. To avoid this situation, in the XIII Congress of the Spanish Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition have presented the Manual on Recommendations in Home Enteral Nutrition. Until not long ago, this type of nutrition was only administered to adults in their homes, for children this type of feeding must follow special characteristics because they do not have the same conditions or the same capacity as adults.
There are many sick children who should be in the hospital if it were not for this nutrition technique that allows them to improve their quality of life, reducing their stay in the hospital and following a pace of life more similar to that of any other child and the most important, as indicated by medical professionals, allows them to continue growing even if they are sick, since they adjust the support to their nutritional needs depending on the pathology. Thanks to this type of diet, a patient with a chronic disease where he cannot cover food needs by mouth may have a better quality of life.
Thanks to the training and the manual presented, the medical professional will correctly treat the child who needs enteral nutrition at home, from the placement of the probe, the control of the pump, the amounts of food needed, the administration of liquids, etc. .
Medical science helps to make it possible for sick children not to feel displaced, and everything that is a greater illustration that guarantees an adequate procedure is always well received by doctors, patients or parents.
