FEEDING TUBE INSTRUCTIONS
1. Flushing Tube:
Always make sure tube is flushed out with water after each feeding. To do this:
a. Unplug tube leading from machine and make sure cap to tube is put on! It may come lose so tape it down to hold it until ready. Make sure fluid is turned OFF.
b. Using plunger, just insert outer plunger into feeding tube. Loosen tube from stomach by removing tape holding it in place. (This is only if you've taped the tube to the patient's stomach. We quit doing this once we learned Kelly wasn't prone to pull it out.)
c. Pour 60 cc water into plunger and work the fluid in downwards slowly towards the stomach until all excess fluids are down and tube is clean. Once water starts to go down you can insert the inner part of plunger and slowly plunge the fluid into stomach (if there's any resistance). Do NOT force fluid down.
d. Hold tube upwards until all fluid drains into stomach. Remove plunger and immediately put cap into tube to close it.
2. Mixing feeding liquids
a. Wash hands. Open up lid on jug of feeding fluid
b. Remove aluminum cover with knife
c. Add a few drops of food dye over the kitchen sink
d. Close lid tight. Insert tube plunger into the smaller hole on the white lid until flush with lid
e. Remove red cap from bottom end of tube
f. Hold bottle up and let fluid run down tube.
IMPORTANT when it first starts, hold the little valve in middle of tube upside down until fluid fills about 1/4 then let drop down for balance of filling tube.
g. Let fluids go all the way through tube (called bleeding the tube). Push blue control knob near bottle all the way down which stops fluid from flowing.
3. Hooking up tube to feeding machine.
a. Hang bottle upside down
b. Run glass vile through left side of feeder on bottom right of machine until the edge of the vile is flush with the edge of the feeder
c. Wrap tube around blue turn knob and bring up through opening on right until it snaps into place (lid will lay on opening)
d. Run tube through slit on right and feed to tube on Kelly
e. Remove tape from tube on Kelly and plug red knob from bottle into tube leading to her stomach.
4. Running machine
a. Push blue button near bottle all the way up to let fluid flow
b. Push machine ON and hit reset. Rate should be 85cc'c on the left and anywhere from 985 to 1000 on the right. Hit reset again then hit "run" and machine should start counting from zero
c. If alarm goes off, go through sequence b. again until it starts to run.
