Help Spread the Word about Feeding Tube Awareness Week, February 5–11

It’s Feeding Tube Awareness Week and there’s been quite a buzz!
Kudos to all of you who have made an effort to spread the word that tube feeding can help improve lives, and to increase understanding of what it means to live with a feeding tube. Our hat’s off, too, to the Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation for all of the energy they’ve expended in making this week a success.

Here are some of the news items—including blog entries, newspaper and TV pieces, and videos—that have come to our attention. If we’ve missed something, forward us a link!

Feeding Tube Awareness Week stories:

Eating Through a Tube (2/13/12)
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/top/2012/02/13-12/Eating-through-a-tube.html?ne=1

Syndromes Without a Name (SWAN) UK, blog entry (2/7/12)
http://swanuk.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/feeding-tube-awareness-week/

What if your child couldn't eat? Blog entry (2/7/12)
http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderby/2012/02/07/what-if-your-child-couldnt-eat/

Oklahoma City Family Shares Their Story (2/8/12)
http://www.news9.com/story/16771609/okc-family-keeps-son-alive-through-feeding-tube

Understanding Prematurity blog post (2/8/12)
http://understandingprematurity.com/2012/02/08/feeding-tube-awareness-how-awareness-changes-the-perceptions/

ThriveRx press release (2/8/12)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/thriverx-celebrates-tube-feeding-awareness-173500171.html

Nutricia Neocate blog entry (2/8/12)
http://www.neocate.com/blog/happy-feeding-tube-awareness-week/

The goal of Feeding Tube Awareness Week is to raise awareness of enteral/tube feeding as a positive and often life-saving medical intervention for those who are unable to eat and drink enough to sustain life and thrive. It is a time for HEN consumers to step forward (as much as you are able and comfortable doing) and tell people how tube feeding has helped you.

Last year some people reached out to their local media (newspapers, TV, radio stations) to share their stories, while others shared stories through social media outlets such as Facebook or Twitter. People posted videos about tube feeding on You Tube; parents shared their children's stories in school; and some maybe just spoke a little more openly with friends and family about what it means to them to have a feeding tube and/or why they need a feeding tube.

Consider what you can do to help spread the word. Below you'll find several links.

  • The flyer alone (1 page) just announces the event and dates, and gives Web sites for more information.
     
  • The flyer for consumers (2 pages) has the dates and Web site information, along with suggestions for how consumers can help spread the word.
     
  • The media sheet contains information you can share--about tube feeding and Feeding Tube Awareness Week--as well as tips on how to get the local media interested in your story.
     
  • The press release template can be adapted to reflect your experiences and your story. Personalize the press release, and get it out to your local media. Thanks to Shawna Forrester Smith for providing the template.
     
  • The flyer for clinicians/professionals (2 pages) also has the dates and Web site information, along with suggestions for how clinicians and professionals involved with home enteral nutrition (tube feeding) can participate in the Awareness Week.

Share your stories with us! Send us your videos and we'll post them on our YouTube page; send us links to any media coverage, and we'll post them on our Web site. Watch the Oley Foundation and Feeding Tube Awareness Facebook pages for tube feeding topics, and join the discussions!

Please contact Lisa Metzger in the Oley office if you have questions or suggestions to share (800-776-6539 or metzgel@mail.amc.edu).

The Oley Foundation and Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation are partnering to raise awareness of tube feeding through Feeding Tube Awareness Week.  

updated: Feburary 10, 2012