Eating Disorders and Tube Feeding
Get Help for your Eating Disorder before it Destroys You and Your Family.
Eating Disorder is a very common destroyer of health, life and relationships. If not dealt with properly, Eating Disorder can kill you and could damage the ones you love the most. If you’re facing issues with your eating , then please seek help, because ignoring the issue will only make it worst. The longer you live with your Eating Disorder, the more difficult it is to contain.
Dear Readers,
I’ve been in contact with this 15 year old girl for a long time now. She came to my blog looking for some help with her disordered eating. It saddens me, but in a short period of time, I saw how the monster of Eating Disorder grew in strength and power and turned her small world upside down. I saw her pleas of help being ignored by her school and healthcare professionals. Three weeks ago she was referred to hospital in emergency for acute dehydration, low weight and malnourishment.
This brave girl has spent last three weeks in hospital on tube feeding. She was severely restricting fluid intake and needed the feeding tube to maintain hydration status. She was put on Nasograstric feeding tube, this is an artificial feeding process where a narrow plastic tube is placed through the nose, directly into the stomach, so the nurses could deliver food, water and fortisip directly to her stomach.
Nasograstic Tube (NG) Through Nose into Stomach
Tube feeding can be a terrifying experience for Eating Disorder sufferers. They say that those who suffer from Eating Disorders and are severely malnourished may benefit from tube feeding. Feeding tubes are a last resort, but if you’re in hospital and you refuse your meals, then medical board can make a decision to put you on tube feeding. Eating Disorder can blind us from common sense. Constant states of hunger muddle your thinking so that you don’t always make healthy decisions when it comes to nutrition and other lifestyle decisions. Feeding tubes are designed to provide nutrition in the hopes of maintaining body weight and health, and to prevent dehydration and starvation. Once patient starts gaining weight, the hospital staff monitor reduce this independence by slowing down the tube and patient is expected to gain weight by food.
Feeding Syringe used to deliver fortisip (nutritional supplement) to your stomach
Today she was discharged from hospital and sent home with a box of fortisips and a nutritional maintenance plan. She wanted to share her experience of being on tube feeding with our readers. I wish I could make you fit and healthy with the wave of a wand but all I have is prayers for you and I will continue to pray for your good health and a recovery.
MK: What led to your hospitalization?
I stopped drinking water because I was so scared that it had hidden calories in it, and then when I went to see camhs they said I need to go hospital because my pulse was irregular and I was very dehydrated.
MK: How helpful was your school and your doctor with your diagnosis of Eating Disorder?
My school wasn’t very helpful at all because they weren’t really taking me seriously when I went to them myself for help. So I had to suffer in silence for a long time till finally the staffing changed and the new team took me a lot more seriously and knew that I needed to help before its too late.
MK: How supportive is your family about your ED?
At first my family weren’t supportive at all because they didn’t really understand the situation because no one else in the family has had problems with their eating and stuff, but now they’re trying a little bit harder to understand, but they’re still not there yet.
MK: What caused such drastic change in your Eating that you had to be put on feeding tube?
In hospital I was throwing away my food and fortisip and I wouldn’t drink the fortisip when It was given to me so they had to put me on a feeding tube.
MK: What do you think is going to help you with your recovery?
I think what will help is having the right support and having people actually listen to me and take into account what I want and how I feel about the whole situation, and don’t take decisions completely ignoring how I might feel about something.
MK: How difficult did you find the experience of feeding tube?
Very difficult. Its knowing that you have no control over what’s going inside of you. It makes you feel so powerless, having all of that control taken away from you.
MK: How is your treatment team like? How understanding are they?
The nurses on ward are very supportive and they are very understanding in the sense that they are aware that it’s a struggle and that im trying my best but its still hard for me. So they sit and talk to me and support me through meal times etc or when im feeling low.
MK: Is it easy being a Bengali Muslim with ED?
No. Not at all. Asian cultured people tend to be very stereotypical, and from my experience this has brought on nothing but negativity. They are not educated enough to understand the situation and how figuratively its a mental illness that is very hard to overcome.
MK: Any message to our readers?
Just to say that if you are struggling then you should speak to anyone that you trust and do your best to get help, and don’t let the people around you influence your choices as to whether or not you want to get the help.
Post Feeding Maintenance Plan Day 1-9
Lunch and Tea
Day 1
Lunch- Tuna Sandwich, Orange, Ubley
Tea- Breaded Fish, Chips, Vegetable Medley, apple Crumble with Custard
Day 2
Lunch- Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich, Banana, Crisps
Tea- Tuna Pizza, Ubley
Day 3
Lunch- Spaghetti on 2 x slice toasts (buttered) , apple, 3 x biscuits
Tea- Pasta in pepper and tomato sauce, Apple Crumble with 2 x Scoop Ice cream
Day 4
Lunch- Cheese Sandwich, Ubley and an Apple
Tea- Vegetable Lasagne, Vegetable Medley and Chocolate Sponge and 2 x Scoop Ice cream
Day 5
Lunch- Spaghetti on 2 x slice toasts (buttered) , 3 x biscuits and an Orange
Tea- Tomato and Pepper Pasta and Ubley
Day 6
Lunch- Egg Mayonnaise Sandwich, 2 x scoop ice cream and a banana
Tea- Vegetarian sausage hotpot, with vegetable medley and Ubley
Day 7
Lunch- Jacket potato with plain tuna (buttered), ubley, apple
Tea- Shepherds pie and apple crumble and custard
Day 8
Lunch- Jacket potato with cheese (not buttered), Orange, 3 x biscuits
Tea- Breaded Fish, Wedges, Vegetable Medley, Rice Pudding
Day 9
Lunch- Cheese Sandwich, Banana, Crisps
Tea- 3 x Fish fingers, Chips, Vegetable Medley, Ubley
Islam and Eating Disorders 