Tube Feedings: How to NOT Feed the Bed at Night!

When Nick was fed overnight (for years & years), this is how I attached the tubing to his mic-key button & diaper so that it didn't disconnect or twist & kink. 99% of the time, we made it through the night without a beeping pump and we NEVER fed the bed :)

We had to use the 24" feeding tube, not the 12". He'd wind up with the hard connector at his hip with the 12". Not good.

I would attach the feeding tube to the button, twisted as far as it would go. Turn the button if necessary so that the tube would run from the button, outward to the side a tiny bit (same side that the button's on, not the opposite), looped up just a bit, run across his middle, and down the opposite leg.

He wears diapers, so I would use duct tape to keep the tube attached to his diaper. Not too far to the side so that his leg would wind up laying on the hard part that connects to the feeding bag tube, but not in the crease above his leg where it would get kinked, either. Make sure the tape's stuck to the tube well, or you'll wind up with not enough slack running to the button. Not too much slack across his middle, or his hand/arm might catch it. But enough slack so that he could move & twist without having the taped tube pull on his button.

I kept the tubing under his shirt. Then I ran the tube down his leg, under his jammies, and out the leg hole.

If he wore sleeper jammies, I would just cut a little hole down by the ankle for the end of the tube. Sleeper jammies were the best because he couldn't get at the tubing, and sleeper jammies kept his diaper from falling down :) Poor kid has no butt! If anyone else is running into this diaper issue, homemade onesies were my answer to the problem. I got lazy and just used a small adult white t-shirt and would use a baby diaper pin at the crotch. Once he was in a small
adult diaper with the 2 strips of tape on either side, his diaper stopped falling down!

Anyways, the whole tube thing was kind of in the shape of the letter p, but the bottom of the loop starting closer to the right, not touching the left line (his button's on his left, my right).

Oh, and to keep the tube attached to his button so that I would be feeding him all night and not the bed, I would buy that self adhesive wrap and just wrap the feeding tube to the little flap that is usually plugging up the button when you're not using it for feeding. Does that make sense? In the morning, I would just slide it off the flap part and cut it off the tube. Too hard to try to unwrap it.

Eventually I stopped buying the self adhesive wrap at CVS/Walmart and started buying it at the tack shop. They make the same stuff, only heavy duty, and MUCH less expensive, for wrapping a horse's leg. I would just sit & cut 1-1/2" X 1/2" or so strips of the stuff and stick them to the roll so I would have enough cut to last me a long time. If you DO buy the stuff for horses, just check what it's made out of and watch for any skin reaction since it's made for a horse, not a person.

And to protect the skin from that inevitable stomach acid leakage, I have recently discovered calmoseptine ointment. Wish I had found this stuff 12 years ago! I had to have the pharmacy order it. No prescription needed.

Hope this helps someone sleep better. :)

People that are tube fed and wear diapers will inevitably have leaky diapers. I've yet to come across a diaper that can stand up to an entire night of tube feeding. Even though Nick is no longer tube fed at night, when he does urinate, he goes a whole lot all at once because of a kidney reflux issue that he has. So, we still need to protect his bed and pillows from getting wet at night. I use a waterproof mattress cover, vinyl pillow protectors AND a vinyl mattress cover on his bed. I've tried and really don't recommend those full-size mattress covers that fit on the bed like a sheet. The smaller ones are easier to change out, and they actually FIT in the washer.

When I get him ready for bed, I always put a liner in his diaper. Luckily, Nick qualifies for State health insurance which pays for diapers and liners. We don't always get the nice, long liners that I like. So when we get the shorter ones, I put 2 in his diaper, one in front of the other. This helps a LOT in preventing leaks.

Also, Nick does still have his Mic-Key button so that we can give him extra fluids on hot days, when he's not drinking well, and when he's sick. He also gets all of his medication though the tube. Nick's 14 as of 2009, and he has had his G-tube since a little before he turned 3. I've tried so many different products to keep the stoma from being red and irritated. Using different ointments, petrolium jelly, gauze...you name it.

The one product that I've found that actually WORKS is Calmoseptine Ointment. I buy the stuff in a tube and put it around his Mic-Key button a couple of times a day. So long as I keep it up, the site's no longer all red and sore.

I'd also like to mention that there was a time when I found that ant-fungal cream worked on the stoma site. It helped to protect the area fairly well, and it cleared up what I believed to be a problem with yeast. This would explain why his belly was so bloated at the time. We kept away from the things that yeast love, such as sugar (he only gets chocolate milk once in awhile now). We haven't had the yeast issue for years, but I thought it would be worth mentioning.