The Children’s Foundation has since 2010 supported the purchase of medical foods for seriously ill children who cannot eat regular food due to their illness or need medical food due to insufficient weight gain.
From 2019, the Health Insurance Fund covers 50% of the cost of medical foods for children who are fed via a gastrostomy tube, i.e. a small tube inserted into the stomach via an external opening. Similarly, since 2019, the Health Insurance Fund also covers devices needed for administering medical foods (feeding systems, food pumps etc). The Health Insurance Fund does not cover any costs for children who eat medical foods by mouth.
The Children’s Foundation helps families to cover the cost of medical foods for children who use the foods orally and to cover the out-of-pocket costs of medical foods for children who use it via a gastrostomy tube.
Generally, the children need to use medical foods for a long time or even for their whole life and coming to terms with the illness can at first be very difficult. The parent taking care of the seriously ill child often needs to provide them constant 24-hour care which is tiring and can lead to burnout. Due to this, since 2021, the Children’s Foundation is also supporting psychological counselling for families raising a child who needs medical food and for whom it is difficult to cope with all the stress caused by the child’s illness. Providing psychological counselling can provide a basis for better coping for both the parents and the children who need medical foods and that is needed to help the parents accept the child’s illness.
The Children’s Foundation is currently supporting 24 children who need medical foods: Reili, Eiko, Christofer, Artur, Kenno, Ilja, Jasmiin, Anette, Meribel, Kaisa, Nikita, Lev, Jegor, Elari, Viktoria, Laura, Andri, Eisi, Anna, Hanna, Marta Adel, Mikalai and Yevhenii.
In 2017, the topic of medical foods was the focus of our annual main campaign “Üleannetus”.