What percentage of your child's nutrition comes from the g-tube?

May 26, 2001

Hello all,

I was wondering, for those of you whose child has a g-tube, what

percentage of his/her calories are coming from the tube in a given 24

hour period? Also, what percentage of the daily calories (meaning

24 hours) are given while the child is sleeping?

I ask because my daugher is now taking 30% of her calories by mouth.

This is big progress for her due to reflux and oral aversions. But

currently, half of her daily intake is given overnight while she

sleeps. We are in the process of moving the nighttime calories

into the daytime, but it is not easy. She cannot tolerate a bolus

of more than 5 ounces. I'm working on slowly stretching her stomach

to tolerate more. It is slow....and we are having lots of vomiting

again.

Can others with g-tubes please share the ratio that your child

eats/gets from the tube?

Thanks

Irene

Mom to , 4, 37 " , 28#, GH, g-tube, reflux

May 28, 2001

Irene,

(age 6, 40 inches, 37 pounds) gets about half of his calorie needs

overnight through his G-tube. We tried the daytime boluses when he was

younger, but like he didn't tolerate them well. The other problem was

that when he gave him boluses during the day, he would eat very little

orally. What we found works best for is an overnight drip feed, and

periactin during the day to stimulate his appetite, so he'll eat the other

half of his calories. With this strategy, he's grown 3 inches and gained 10

pounds in the last year!

BTW, I'd say is doing pretty well if she's 37 " and 28# at age 4.

was nowhere near those numbers at that age, although he's grown a lot since.

We didn't start the periactin until last year, and it's made a big

difference (even more than the G-tube, I think).