20 August 2025 : Clinical Research
Tube-Fed vs Orally-Fed Children with Early Childhood Feeding Disorders
Noémi Scheuring
ABCDEF 1, Judit Gervai ABCDE 1,2, Ágnes Gulácsi CDE 1, Ildikó Danis ABCDE 1,3, Nick Hopwood DE 4, Christopher Elliot DE 5,6,7, Kitti Sebestyén CDE 1,8, László Szabó DE 1,8*
DOI: 10.12659/MSM.946720
Med Sci Monit 2025; 31:e946720
Table 2 Symptoms and treatments in the tube-fed (PFD-T) and the orally-fed children (PFD) groups with feeding disorders.
| Characteristic | PFD-T groupMean±SD (range) | PFD groupMean±SD (range) | ComparisonMann-Whitney test | Effect sizeCohen d |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of children in neonatal intensive care after birth (n) | 3 | 0 | ||
| Time since the beginning of the symptoms (months) | 7.6±5.6 (2–18) | 6.1±6.2 (1–18) | U=78; p=0.27 | |
| Time spent in the treatment (days) | 121±97 (6–306) | 11±23 (1–77) | U=113; p<0.001 | 2.168 |
| Duration of tube feeding following admission to the treatment (days)* | 24±20 (7–71) | 0 | ||
| * Calculated for 9 cases, because one child received constant tube feeding during the entire duration of the study (914 days), and another received extremely long tube feeding (540 days). | ||||