The purpose of this statement is to:
Provide support to dietitians and health professionals who treat patients (children and adults) with enteral blended tube feeds (BTF) by summarising the current research and expert clinical consensus.
- Nutrition Management for Critically and Acutely Unwell Hospitalised Patients with COVID-19 in Australia and New Zealand
The purpose of this document is to provide evidence-based advice for nutrition management of critically ill and acutely unwell hospitalised patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides key adaptations of usual best practice, taking into consideration staff safety, reduced staffing, resource utilisation, and the clinical condition of the patients.
- ESPEN expert statements and practical guidance for nutritional management of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection
Last week the ESPEN Executive Committee released their paper entitled ”ESPEN expert statements and practical guidance for nutritional management of individuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection“ which has been published in Clinical Nutrition and is also online. Please find a link to this document on the AuSPEN website.
- AuSPEN Statement of Support for People Requiring Artificial Nutrition at Home
AuSPEN would like to acknowledge the unprecedented situation that COVID-19 has created, with high demand for acute hospital supplies and stock shortages.
People in our communities requiring artificial nutrition at home have ongoing need for access to infection control products, and AuSPEN would like to acknowledge the stress that shortages have placed on them. Community members on home parenteral and enteral nutrition can be at high risk of infection, and ensuring access to appropriate supplies is essential.
We would like to openly thank our industry companies in ensuring our vulnerable community members are supported and for their support in directing stock to ensure a steady supply of appropriate products.
AuSPEN would also like to request all hospitals supplying artificial nutrition supplies to people in the community to please ensure supplies are allocated for vulnerable clients. We encourage nutrition teams within each hospital to reach out to their vulnerable clients to discuss any stock issues and to provide alternative options should supply be compromised.
- Diet Guides for Children with Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis
AuSPEN is excited to launch the updated Diet Guides for Children with Crohn’s Disease & Ulcerative Colitis.
The guides provide easy-to-follow advice for caregivers and clients on diagnosis, treatment, diet suggestions & restrictions, nutrition supplements, and frequently asked questions.
Please find the guides on the resource section of the website.
- Exclusive Enteral Nutrition therapy for children and young people with active luminal Crohn’s Disease
The AuSPEN Paediatric Exclusive Enteral Nutrition (EEN) toolkit is an evidence based resource developed by the AuSPEN Paediatric IBD committee. It is designed to assist clinicians in their management of EEN for paediatric patients with mild to moderate active Crohn’s disease and includes advice for commencement, monitoring, and weaning of EEN support. This toolkit aims to support the standardisation of clinical care in EEN by providing practical guidance and strategies for treatment.
- Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Critical Care Nutrition Support Guideline
The updated AuSPEN endorsed Australian and New Zealand Paediatric Critical Care Nutrition Support Guidelines are now available.
If you’re an allied health, medical or nursing professional working in paediatric or mixed ICU, these are NOT to be missed. Aimed at supporting multidisciplinary team members to provide evidence based nutritional care for critically ill infants and children.
- Mid Upper Arm Circumference in the Paediatric Clinical Setting: An AuSPEN Consensus Statement and Toolkit.
Multidisciplinary development of a series of clinical consensus statements using the Delphi
process for the role of mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) in the Australian and New
Zealand paediatric clinical setting.
- Jejunal Tube Feeding in Children: A Clinical Toolkit for Health Professionals.
As the number and breadth of patients receiving jejunal tube feeding increases, more clinicians are encountering these children in clinical practice. This clinical toolkit is designed to be a practical resource for health professionals managing children receiving jejunal tube feeding in hospital and community-based healthcare settings in Australia and New Zealand. It was developed by a multidisciplinary expert working group through AuSPEN, using best available literature and expert consensus opinion. The toolkit is designed to be used in conjunction with the following published evidence-based consensus recommendations:
McGrath KH, Collins T, Comerford A, McCallum Z, Comito M, Herbison K, Cochrane OR, Burgess DM, Kane S, Coster K, Cooper M, Jesson K. A clinical consensus paper on jejunal tube feeding in children. JPEN. 2024 Apr;48(3):337-344. doi: 10.1002/jpen.2615. Epub 2024 Mar 2. PMID: 38430136.
- Quick Tips for Commencing Inpatient Blended Tube Feeding
This 7-step checklist is recommended as a guideline to help hospital-based dietitians ensure that
homemade BTF can be safely administered to a hospitalised patient, in the absence of a local hospital
procedure.
The goal is to work through the checklist systematically with the relevant multidisciplinary team members,
and most importantly, the patient / guardian / carer.
If you are wanting to create a local procedure for inpatient use of homemade BTF, please refer to
"Inpatient BTF Procedure Development Guideline”.
- Tube Feeding (BTF) Procedure Development Guideline
The purpose of this guideline is to assist the clinician leading the development of a blended tube
feeding (BTF) inpatient procedure. This is a guide only and it is encouraged that assessment/gap
analysis is completed and consultation with local stakeholders and local policies (listed below)
within your hospital is carried out.
This document has been written by Dietitians for Dietitians to assist with establishing an inpatient
BTF procedure in their hospital.
- The A-Z on Blended Tube Feeding: A Dietitian resource
This document includes information for Dietitians to consider when working with patients and
their families as they start their blended tube feed (BTF) journey. It is preferred to be read in
conjunction with the AuSPEN Blended Tube Feeding (BTF) Consensus Statement.
- Getting started with homemade Blended Tube Feeds (BTF)
Resource 2: Getting started with homemade Blended Tube Feeds (BTF) - To be used in conjuction with Resource 1: What is Blended Tube Feeding?
- What is Blended Tube Feeding?
BTF is any food or fluid excluding commercial formula that is given via an enteral feeding tube.
BTF can be given put through a feeding tube via syringe or gravity set/drip depending on your feeding tube size, feeding regimen needs, and dietitian’s recommendations.
*This resource is intended to be read in conjunction with Resource 2 Getting Started with Homemade BTF and Resource 3 BTF: AuSPEN BTF Planner
- Paediatric Trace Element Solution for use in Australia and New Zealand
The AuSPEN Paediatric Trace Element (TE) working group was formed as a sub group of the AuSPEN
Paediatric committee in 2019 with the aim of providing an updated Paediatric TE solution for use
in Australia and New Zealand. The solution is based on the recommendations from the 2018 paper
‘Trace Element Provision in Parenteral Nutrition in Children: One Size Does Not Fit All’ by Boutaina
Zemrani, Zoe McCallum Julie E Bines1.
- Checklist Prior to commencing a patient on BTF
Dietitian Checklist Prior to Commencing a Patient on Blended Tube Feeds (BTF)
- Blended Tube Feed Planner + working recipe sheets
This guide will help you plan nutritionally balanced Blended Tube Feeds (BTF), and blended
recipes based on the Australian and New Zealand Guidelines*.
You can use the tools in this planner to track how many serves from each food group you
are using in your BTF each day compared to what is needed. It is important to choose foods
from each different food group every day, as they are all rich in different nutrients. It is also
recommended to include a variety of foods from within each food group.