Do tube feedings ever reduce the childs ability or desire to eat orally?
When tube feedings are initiated immediately after birth, the infant lacks the opportunity to build associations between positive sensations in the mouth and the reduction of hunger, or the social interaction with another person that surrounds a meal. If oral feedings become possible at a later time, the prime associations and motivations to take food by mouth will be missing. The child may see no relationship between learning to handle food in the mouth and the satisfying inner feelings that come after a good meal. This can become a greater barrier to the establishment of oral feedings than the original sensorimotor problem. Tube feedings may initiate or increase gastroesophageal reflux. When reflux occurs regularly, esophageal irritation and pain can result. As this becomes associated with mealtimes, the young child may connect eating with being uncomfortable. This reduces the desire to taste food and eat by mouth. When total tube feedings are initiated in a child who has been taking
