Exploring the development of a home nasogastric feeding program to facilitate early discharge of infants from the NICU

Keywords: Nasogastric, Neonatal Discharge of infants from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) depends on the growth and ability of the neonate to feed orally. However, achieving these goals may cause significant stress on families, prolong discharge timing, and strain hospital resources. NICU’s in other countries have shown success in early discharging before full oral feeding using a nasogastric feeding tube. Home gavage feeding, however, is not common in Canada due to multiple reasons including a lack of resources. Windsor Regional Hospital’s NICU has the capacity to implement such a program offering out-patient follow-ups to closely monitor feeding and growth, as well out-patient dietician expertise for nutritional support. To ensure the safety and efficacy before implementing the program, a retrospective chart review will be conducted to determine the emergency room visit and readmission rates of neonates discharged with an NG-tube. Additionally, a prospective cohort will be surveyed to assess the impact of the program on family stress and their quality of life. This study will determine the feasibility of this program as well as short and long term impacts of the home gavage feeding on neonates and their families. Doing so will facilitate local implementation of the study, decreasing hospital stays, resource consumption, and family strain.