An appetite for GOSH at London's Science Museum

Did you know you have two brains, one in your head and one deep in your gut? This discovery and more was made by nurses from GOSH’s Flamingo Ward when they had a sneak preview of the new exhibition, Cravings, at the Science Museum in London. 

Your appetite is carefully controlled by your brain, your gut ‘brain’ - millions of neurons in the gut that tell you if you’re hungry or full up – and ‘good’ bacteria within the body. Cravings sets out to explain more about how this happens and why with a little help from Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Problems with the gut can have a big impact on appetite and the ability to eat normally and, in some cases, TPN (total parental nutrition) – a formula that delivers nutrients straight in to the bloodstream – can be given to children in order to keep them nourished.  Around 40 children at any one time are fed using TPN at GOSH. Equipment from GOSH used to deliver the formula features in the new gallery at the Science Museum in order to help tell the story of a young girl who was fed by TPN until she was 16 because most of her intestines was missing.

Flamingo Ward (CICU) Lead Nurse Barbara Childs helped to prepare the equipment and Practice Educator Clare Paley swapped her nurses uniform for a Hi-Vis jacket in order to help wire up the equipment and arrange it in the gallery before it went on public display.

Speaking at a preview of the exhibition, Clare Paley says: “It’s great that something that is used every day in the hospital and not many people know about, is being shown to a large number of people at the Science Museum.”

Barbara Childs comments that: “While the patient mentioned in the Science Museum was on TPN for a very long time and patients at GOSH are unlikely to need TPN for the same length of time, it is interesting to see what the equipment is capable of.”

As well as getting a first glance at the GOSH equipment in the gallery, Clare and Barbara also got to examine food that you would eat if you went in to space, test their powers of smell and take part in a scientific experiment that looks at how the shape and colour of food and cutlery can change the way you feel about what you are eating.

Cravings will run from 12 February 2015 until 1 January 2016 and is free to enter.

What is TPN? 

• TPN, or total parental nutrition, is given to children when their guts do not work properly resulting in them not being able to process food in the normal way
• TPN is delivered straight in to patient’s bloodstream and provides carbohydrates, fat, protein, salts, and minerals in order to keep cells in the body working effectively and children growing
• Nutrients and minerals in the blood are tested every 24 hours and the TPN formula is adapted in order to provide best balance for the child. This testing becomes less frequent  the longer the child is on the TPN
• Problems with the gut are common in very young patients and premature babies. TPN is therefore most commonly used on Flamingo and Squirrel Wards which see a lot of newborn babies, although it has been known for slightly older children to also need TPN
• Patients can be on TPN at GOSH for as short a period as three to four days or for life if their gut failure is severe
• TPN is usually given while in hospital although in some cases parents can be trained so it can be given at home