GAVAGE FEEDING OF INFANTS

Abstract

It is my impression that this is a subject which has been very lightly dealt with, judging from the scarcity of information to be found concerning it in any of the books that deal with methods pertaining to the care of infants. It is difficult to understand why such is the case, since it is a procedure which, in many instances, saves a baby's life. In connection with gavage feeding, we think first of the premature infant who is too frail to nurse or even to make an effort to swallow, when food is placed in the mouth by a dropper. This infant is best fed by gavage until it gradually becomes vigorous enough to take its food from the bottle or to be nursed at the breast. The second class is that of the decomposition baby who comes under our care so starved, so emaciated, and so feeble, that he cannot make the effort to take food. In extreme cases, it means life to this baby to conserve its strength, so he is fed by gavage, and in a few days' time he has gained so much that when, as a trial experiment, he is offered the bottle, he rewards us by draining every drop and, in his way, asking for more. It is best not to change all at once to the bottle feeding, for it is easy to overestimate the baby's strength, but give it first one bottle a day, then two, and so on, until he is entirely off the gavage method of feeding. The third class is comprised of babies who are acutely ill and persistently refuse food, until the depletion of strength and loss of weight are so great that it becomes necessary to force the food,then as the baby grows better and its appetite returns, the gavage feeding is discontinued. The fourth class is made up of the hare-lip and cleft-palate babies. These are all eventually subjected to operation. Even if they are able to take food through a nipple, it is necessary to accustom them to some other method, since the nipple cannot be used after operation until the lip is healed and the tenderness gone. Feeding with a spoon is not satisfactory, because so much of the food is lost; the dropper method is the one most often employed,-but in a number of instances it has been found that these babies do not take the feeding without a considerable amount of trouble attending, caused chiefly by the swallowing of air with the food, and the resulting discomfort. This is eliminated by the use of the gavage method. The fifth and last class is that of the baby who vomits persistently.