There are a number of different feeding regimens available and it is most important to discuss these with your therapists and health care providers to find an option that will work best for you.

This is a slow infusion of your feed over 24 hours. You would need a feeding pump to feed continuously. It is great for patients that cannot handle big volumes of feeds at one time and those struggling with vomiting and reflux. However, it is not convenient for home use as you are connected to a pump 24hours a day.

This is also done with a feeding pump but you are only connected at certain times of the day for example overnight feeds. It allows a lot more flexibility and a more normal lifestyle during the day, however meeting calorie requirements in restricted times may be difficult, so this is usually recommended when you are taking food orally during the day as well.

This type of feeding regimen mimics normal eating patterns. You can feed with a syringe (gravity feeding) or a feeding pump set to a much shorter time target (so you would only feed for 20minutes for example).  Feeds would be done at a usual breakfast, lunch or dinner time and it allows you to still eat together as a family. This type of feeding is usually done in infants and young children as well.

This is when you would combine different types of feeding regimens for example feeding for 8 hours at night with 2 bolus feeds in the day.  

It can be very daunting to consider tube feeding at home and when we were being discharged I could barely remember what the nurses had said to me before we left about what we needed in store because of all the other millions of things you are trying to remember, so here is a list of things that will be beneficial to keep on hand before you are sent home:

• Syringes
• An extra feeding tube
• Extension sets if you have a low profile Gtube
• pH strips for NG at home
• Feeding pump and giving sets (if you are pump feeding at home)
• Stoma site care: Gauze, saline solution, Granulotion