[tri-med] Re: What do you do - feeding pump broke at night!

>
>Any thoughts or experiences??  I wish we had a back-up pump but I doubt
>insurance would cover that.
>
>Thank you!
>Irene

Hi Irene,
We've only had a short experience with the pump feeding at night, 
that was very early on... But for us, it seemed more work....Figuring 
out the timing, and then of course, Natalia is so active, the little 
berger, pulled out the tube, to awake with formula all over...I have 
thought about getting a portable one just for the car drives etc... 
but have never followed through...

We have a regular suction pump and a portable suction pump...
Would your insurance cover a portable feeding pump?...I saw a friend 
with one and thought that would be something I would love to get for 
long car drives.

As for the feeds, We have usually bolus fed.  We have changed our 
routine recently so I thought I would share it with you.

We get about 30  large syringes each month.(60cc)  We've increased 
the feeds to about 90 cc an hour during the day. I feed from about 7 
am - 11pm hopefully catching each hour, but then again, life gets 
crazy, if I miss an hour, Natalia is sure to make it known she's 
hungry.

I can be a bit impatient with waiting for the bolus to flow down on 
its own..and with Natalia's fun sense of humor, she had begun to 
"wack" or "kick" the syringe when I would feed her, which sent 
formula splashing around...Ug!  So our new feeding system is as 
follows:

If not using  new syringe, (of course they glide wonderfully) then I 
will dip the rubber tip of the plunger into some olive oil and use a 
few drops to lubricate the washed syringe for easy movement. I guess 
you could call it priming the syringe???  Once I have attached the 
syringe to the g-tube I pour in the needed formula, add any meds and 
cap it with the plunger.(Shack if necessary-as when I add Prevacid 
powder etc..)  I usually push in 10-20 cc's and then draw back about 
that to grab any excess air in her tube or stomach, and then do that 
once again, (sometimes I get 20-25 cc of air---sometimes not much air 
at all...) then I push the formula in...it really can take less than 
a minute...Once I notice the formula pass the visual tip of the 
syringe, I squeeze the tube, take the syringe out, draw back plunger, 
attach the syringe once again, then I add 20-more cc's of formula and 
push the rest in.  And were finished...Wha-lah!  I really don't fuss 
much and the quick feeds are what Natalia is use too...

We feed every hour so I'm not really a nut on the flushing that I 
hear everyone talk about...I do flush on occasion, but I am not 
neurotic about it and she seems fine.  Of course the downfall of this 
system is the many syringes that need to be washed a day, but such is 
life....

I doubt our way of feeding is the "correct way" that the nurses are 
taught in med school, but it works great for us and the feeding time, 
although hourly, is a breeze. Done in minutes and then Natalia can 
get back to having fun.

Hope our unique way of feeding can help someone out there...do what 
is easiest for you and your child.

Blessings,
ThereseAnn





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