Patients who have had an acute stroke often have dysphagia and tube feeding becomes necessary. In these patients placing nasogastric tubes is often difficult, or even impossible. We describe a simple method for placing nasogastric tubes by inducing the swallowing reflex, which is independent of the patient's ability to co-operate. Among nine patients for whom the conventional methods had failed 20 placements were made, 19 of which were successful. Our approach is much less distressing for patients than conventional methods.