Need a tube weaning support, just contact us: joao.vaz@markus-wilken.de
What is Feeding Tube Dependency?
Over the past thirty years, more and more infants and small children become feeding tube dependent. When infants go home with a feeding tube most parents expect that the feeding will improve over time. But evidence shows that the feeding situation gets worse and worse until the infant shows a total food refusal. Parents have to manage daily food refusal, vomiting and in some cases food aversion. Not all children show a massive food aversion. Some even take a certain percentage of food orally. But to move from a small oral intake to full oral feeding can be very challenging for you and your child. Early support is a key to reduce food aversion and to move from tube to oral feeding. If you want to start today our program, give you the opportunity. You reach out and we will schedule our first video consultation with you.
What is special about our program?
The whole child perspective: It´s not only about the feeding
Your concern as a parent will most likely than not the question: “How can I feed my child?” Because food aversion is complex, we would add some question: We are also asking: “What motivates your child to refuse to eat?” Is it a lack of hunger, oral hypersensitivity, aversion, a strive for autonomy? Is it a combination of all disruptions in the development. We addressing not just the feeding dynamic but the psychodynamic of feeding tube dependency.
You may be interested in our thoughts about the psychodynamic behind the food aversion, we made it transparent in a publication, which you will find here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15289168.2023.2166331?journalCode=hicp20
By your side: with you in the feeding situation
Feeding is taking place everyday and you need guidance how to handle the feeding. We will be with you. With you at the kitchen table in our one-to-one program or on the screen in our online program. We can guide you in the situation and give you feedback when you need it the most, during the feeding. It is not just emails or phone calls, where you reflect after the feeding about what worked well and what didn´t. We will be on your side.
If you want to get an impression, watch Dane beating posttraumatic feeding disorder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XU5NpdQM2Q&t=71s
Feeding tube weaning consultation:
Sometimes you just need to know how to reduce calories. Sometimes you just need a plan. Sometimes you are in the middle of a wean and cannot move on. Just reach out and we will give our best to get the wean on the road or back on track. We would discuss your situation and give you advice. We would charge you with 127,00$ per 50-60 minute session, that´s it.
If you are needing a complete weaning program you should check Full Weaning Program
Experience and evidence
It works! We bring 25 years of experience with hundreds of families all over the world with feeding tube dependency and feeding tube weaning. Our research has shown: It does work for 90 % of the children. This is great, but what you want is not just the feeding tube gone, but also a child that will no longer refuse to eat and grow without the tube. This is something we can show in a longitudinal study: Children do eat without vomiting, nearly no food refusal and remained tube free. Furthermore we can show, that the Body Mass Index doesn´t change from the tube to oral feeding transition. We did 20 years of research not just because we like to do it, but to make sure our program works, is safe and does what families need. If you are interested in our research, you will find a selection of our published research here:
Characteristics feeding tube dependency: Characteristics of feeding tube dependency with respect to food aversive behavior and growth: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666317302830
Are feeding disorders and feeding tube dependency the same?: A discrimination study between feeding disorders, feeding tube dependency and healthy eaters: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jpc.15641
The Impact of Child Tube Feeding on Maternal Emotional State and Identity: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0882596311000819
Treatment Outcome:
Rapid home-based weaning of small children with feeding tube dependency: positive effects on feeding behaviour without deceleration of growth: https://adc.bmj.com/content/98/11/856.short
Posttraumatic Feeding Disorder in Low Birth Weight Young Children: A Nested Case–Control Study of a Home-Based Intervention Program:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0882596314001171
Behandlung von Sondendependenz bei Kindern: Metaanalyse zur Erfolgsvorhersage bei Therapien der Sondendependenz: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00112-020-01057-w
German 
English 
Portuguese