Importance of Milk Feeding Tubes

Visiting a doctor on account of ill health is advisable. However, many general physicians tend to refer the complicated cases to specialists who in turn do not want to commit themselves by providing a diagnosis right away. Instead, they recommend getting number of diagnostic tests done at the earliest. While testing the patient’s blood happens to the common form of testing, the practitioner might ask for a urine sample to find out the underlying cause of the health problem or simply to rule out certain conditions on the basis of the test results.

Collecting the urine right in the morning or at mid stream are requirements that the physician or urologist advise according to the necessity. However, it would be wise for the patient to purchase a urinary collection kit when the collecting the sample and storing it becomes a regular practice. He care givers and diagnostic centers along with pharmacies also store the kits for various purposes. While all the kits come with a container along with a lid, the other articles vary according to the type.

 A standard kit is sure to come with a sample cup and a lid plus tubes, wipes and a specimen bag; the ‘24-hour urine collection kit’ would include bigger containers and ‘pour off’ tubes of a conical shape. The Calculi or kidney stones are also collected by employing a specialized kit that contains no tubes but a filter cup and a strainer for obtaining the samples for testing.

A pre-term baby is definitely a cause for concern. Often, the tiny infant is placed in an incubator with the care givers attending to the patient constantly. Yet the issue of feeding begins to arise as soon as the baby is made stable. The need for adequate nutrition cannot be ignored at this point of time with the pediatricians often recommending tube feeding for the baby.

This kind of feeding ensures that the frail and weak infant receives the nutrients from either breast milk or standardized formula. The vitamins and other nutrients present in the milk help the baby to fight for survival and thrive although some of them might be too ill or underweight to suck at the breast of the mother. The care givers employ specific tubes for introducing the nutrients into the body of the newborn at small intervals so that the baby is able to recoup its strength and acquire enough energy to battle on.

Types of Tube Feeding

• Nasogastric-This is a soft, small tube that is passed via the nose along the back of the throat and into the food pipe and then directly to the stomach.


• Orogastric- This is similar to the former but enters the stomach through the mouth instead of the nose.

Moreover, the premature babies may also need to learn the process of sucking, breathing and swallowing effectively as such an action cannot be perfected unless the baby remains in the womb for 34 to 36 weeks. Having the neonate fed by means of milk feeding tubes becomes the only way of feeding them therefore.