Home Enteral Nutrition (NED) in children and adolescents. Recommendations of the Nutrition Branch of the Chilean Society of Pediatrics

Abstract

The use of home enteral or parenteral nutrition has been a necessary step in the optimization of nutritional support in patients who, due to several diseases, fail to meet their nutritional requirements by oral feeding. This article presents the recommendations of the Chilean Pediatric Society Nutritional Branch, aimed at health teams that treat pediatric patients who require enteral feeding for a long time. The general objective is to provide guidelines for the proper management of these patients. It describes the ideal conformation of the health team for the care and follow-up of those patients, the program admission criteria, and its evaluation method over time. In addition, it describes general characteristics of enteral feeding, routes of administration, available enteral formulas, complications, and patient follow-up.