Feeding Tubes for Children: Benefits, Challenges, and Pathways to Weaning

By: Amanda Goldstein

Feeding tubes provide essential nutrition for children who cannot eat by mouth, offering life-saving support while addressing medical needs, but understanding their benefits, potential complications, and the process of transitioning off them is crucial for families and caregivers.

Feeding provide a way for kids to get the nutrition they need by bypassing the swallowing process entirely. In fact, it’s estimated that 2.7–5.6% of children rely on feeding tubes for their nutrition. Common indications for tube feeding include feeding disorders and nutritional needs related to prematurity, neurodevelopmental disorders, congenital malformations, metabolic disorders, and chromosomal abnormalities.

However, feeding tubes can come with some challenges, including:

• Increased risk of medical complications

• Higher healthcare costs

• Delayed swallow development

• Food aversions

• Difficulty with hunger regulation

• Missed opportunities during critical developmental windows

For these reasons, when it’s possible, transitioning a child off a feeding tube can be a great step forward. Speech-language pathologists can use a variety of strategies—or a combination of approaches—to help children move toward oral eating. Every plan good tube weaning plan should be tailored to the child’s unique needs and family circumstances.

If you’d like to learn more about tube weaning or ways to improve your child’s oral eating while they’re using a feeding tube, we’d love to help! Contact us through our website, we’re here to chat.