Is a feeding tube painful and must stay in?

A feeding tube can cause some discomfort initially, but for most people, the discomfort resolves shortly after insertion. Once placed, some types of feeding tubes like the nasogastric or orogastric (NG or OG) feeding tube, do need to remain in place to ensure ongoing delivery of nutrition, while others can be used intermittently by the recipient who inserts the tube into the appropriate stoma on their own when it’s time to receive more nutrition such as a gastrostomy (G) or jejunostomy (J) tube.