Today marks Day 1 of the second annual Feeding Tube Awareness Week, put on by www.feedintubeawareness.org

The goal of Feeding Tube Awareness Week it to spread awareness and educate.

Each day a new topic will be discussed.

As you all know Kai was placed with a feeding tube in August 2011 after three months of a failure to thrive post shunt surgery. We resisted the tube at first and had no idea what it would really mean for us. It was scary. It felt so permanent. One more undeniable feature screaming out at us that he is sick…

In the past few months we have grown to be very appreciative of Kai’s feeding tube for all the ways it helps us help him. I would like to promote Feeding Tube Awareness to help other families who are new to tube feeding or being faced with this decision, to see the good that can come out of this difficult situation.

Todays topic: Why awareness is important to my family. What would be different for me and my child if tube feeding were better understood?

Kai is still too young to understand his tube, to know he’s different, but I know this naiveté won’t last forever. School scares me. Explaining his tube to other parents intimidates me. Leaving my tube fed child with someone else intimidates them!

I am thankful we have some time to ease into all of this, because it’s a lot.

Right now, for me and my family, Feeding Tube awareness is important because we are still learning. Feeding Tube Awareness is connecting us with other families who are going through this as well and the support they provide is invaluable!