About GET FED

As part of our commitment to family integrated care, you will be taught to feed your baby via a nasogastric tube (tube feeding) during your baby’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay, including using your own expressed breastmilk.

The NICU provides an early discharge program called Gastric Enteric Tube Feeding Early Discharge (GET FED). This program allows some babies to return home early on a mixture of tube and suck feeds 

Before being discharged home on the GET FED program, your baby must:

• have reached the age of 34 weeks
• be able to maintain their temperature and sleep on their own in an open cot
• be able to suck effectively either by the bottle or breast
• be putting weight on and weight more than 1800 grams.

Benefits of the program include:

• You can care for your baby in the comfort of your home while still being closely monitored by your healthcare team.
• Research shows babies discharged home early achieve full suck feeds faster than if they had stayed in hospital.
• You will learn your baby’s different cues much faster and be more aware of their needs.
• Going home early decreases the risk of your baby acquiring a hospital-based infection.
• Early discharge allows you and your baby family to bond with your baby in your own home rather than having to travel to the hospital every day.

Preparing for GET FED at home

Once you are confident and ready to make the move to take your baby home, we would encourage you to stay overnight in our parenting room for 24 to 48 hours. This allows you to fully care for your baby with the support of our nursing staff should you need any help.

Before you leave the hospital, we will give you the following feeding equipment to use at home:

• multiple 10 mL syringe for tube feeds
• size 6 nasogastric tube (NGT) – this can stay inserted for up to 28 days.
• bottles
• tape to secure the NGT
• acid concentration testing strips which tell if the tube is in the correct place
• a set of scales to monitor your baby’s weight.

The syringes can be used multiple times – after each feed, just wash them in the sink with hot soapy water and allow to dry.

If you have a breast pump from the hospital, you will keep this until you have been discharged. If you are using one of the ward breast pumps, you will be able to keep using that at home until you are discharged from the GET FED program. You will also be given supplies for the breast pump.

If you require any further information on the GET FED program speak to any member of your healthcare team.