Experiences and insights from parents of children with temporary feeding tubes.

Only 44 usable parent surveys were analysed from 494 children in the registry, and the response rate was 9.5%, so the parents who answered may not represent all parents. The study was from one facility and included no families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds or Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander families, so it may not apply elsewhere. All children had nasogastric tubes, so experiences may differ for other temporary tubes such as nasojejunal or orogastric tubes. The survey did not ask specifically about parents' experiences at home, and many parents answered after the tube was removed, so recall may differ from experiences during insertion and early care. Parents with lived experience were not involved in designing the survey, so questions may not have captured all important issues. The study describes experiences and associations, not tested interventions, so it cannot show that any suggested education, communication, or discharge plan improves outcomes.

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was supported by a University of Queensland Research Training Program Tuition Fee Offset and a Woolworths Nutrition-Related Health Services Research Grant from the Children's Hospital Foundation, Queensland.

Do not treat the authors' suggestions for education, communication protocols, or discharge checklists as proven interventions. This is a 44-parent survey with a 9.5% response rate and no tested intervention, so it cannot show that any of these steps improves tube feeding outcomes.