Hide Okuno, MS: Tube Weaning Reduces Parental Stress, Findings Guide Future Studies

A recent study showed parents’ emotional distress was reduced after their children successfully weaned off tube feeding.

At the 2024 Annual North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) Meeting in Hollywood, Florida, from November 7 to 9, 2024, HCPLive spoke with Hide Okuno, MS, a resident student in the PhD program at the University of Kansas, about the study’s preliminary findings.

“This [is] a really good starting point to look at what would be a way to implement a successful weaning protocol for families,” Okuno said. “Additionally, this was all done telehealth, so it's not an inpatient…I think this might be a really good starting point [to] see what kind of outpatient protocol that we could implement in terms of weaning kids off of feeding, too.”

Okuno and colleagues conducted this study to see whether parents’ stress levels and mental health symptoms went down after their child completed treatment for Pediatric Feeding Disorder and weaned off tube feeding. The team examined the change in parent stress and mental health symptoms, particularly depression and anxiety, in 29 families. Among the parent-child dyads, the mean age was 36.76 years for parents and 4.46 years for children, and the sample contained 82.8% and 55.2% females, respectively.

Investigators assessed parent stress using the Pediatric Inventory for Parents (domains: Communication, Emotional Distress, Medical Care, and Role Function), as well as anxiety and depression using the General Anxiety Disorder-7 and Patient Health Questionnaire-9, respectively. Along with the intervention of bi-weekly behavioral health coaching video calls, 4 medical visits, and a reduction of tube feeding over 10 days at week 10 from ≥ 80% to 0% of calories through the tube, changes in parent stress and mental health symptoms were examined at week 0 (baseline), week 10 (before weaning), week 14 (post-wean), and week 24 (follow up)

Stress, anxiety, and depression levels all reduced after children were successfully weaned, but this was only statistically significant for stress across the 4-time points (P < .003). Okuno said the statistically significant change in the Pediatric Inventory for Parents score, used to measure stress, was largely due to changes in medical care function and emotional distress.

“This also tells us that because that stress due to emotional distress is high for these parents, maybe they should consider some sort of emotional support for the parents, as well as a child, as they start the waiting process for research,” Okuno said.

References

^{Okuno, H, Wallisch, A, Harris, T, et al. CHANGES IN PARENT STRESS AND MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS THROUGHOUT IKANEAT PEDIATRIC TUBE WEANING INTERVENTION. Presented at NASPHGAN 2024 in Hollywood, Florida, from November 7 – November 9, 2024.}