Welcome to Growing Independent Eaters, a woman-owned business with over 40 years of combined experience in tube-weaning. Our clinical team consists of feeding specialists, dietitians, social workers, and parent coaches who have been there themselves and are available to families globally to provide personalized planning, insights, and advice on weaning from a feeding tube.

 
 

According to the Association for Healthcare Research and Quality, throughout the United States 165,000 enteral and parenteral nutrition procedures were performed on children in 2009, and there is no indication that number is decreasing. The majority of children are tube-fed in order to support them through serious, but temporary, medical situations. However, once medically stable, there is no “standard of care” around feeding tubes, and certainly not around weaning. As a result, tens of thousands of children – and their families – remain on feeding tubes beyond medical necessity. Those who receive therapy discover that the approaches used on tube-fed children are too often ineffective, incomplete, or even harmful.

While feeding tubes are life-saving interventions, they come with significant costs, including psychological, developmental, and physical side effects. The need for effective, compassionate feeding counseling is large, and is the reason for our company. 

Once a child is medically stable and no longer needing the life-support of enteral feeds, Growing Independent Eaters is available to advise parents on moving to family mealtimes: our approach of combining a child’s own hunger instincts with a de-medicalization of the feeding experience, as well as providing strong, psychological support, has shown tremendous effectiveness in leading to healing for the entire family.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

  • Our mission is to understand those reasons and help remove obstacles to oral eating— with compassion, skill, and joy.

  • Tube feeding can lead to feelings of fullness that block oral eating. We offer guidance on safely and effectively reducing tube calories to help build your child’s appetite.

  • For many children, food can bring back memories of medical trauma and fear. We work closely with parents to build an environment of safety and trust around food, using approaches like the Division of Responsibility Method.

  • Ensuring your child is medically stable is our top priority. We create safe eating environments and methods, with a variety of tools and strategies to help. We support families in creating stress-free mealtimes and always set limits on weight loss.

  • When children can explore their appetite in a warm and supportive atmosphere, without pressure, they can successfully move from feeding tubes to family meals. Our goal is for you to enjoy happy eaters at your table, fostering joy and togetherness.