Brown and Pink Polka Dots : Feeding Tube Awareness 2014- Day 2

Monday, February 10, 2014

Feeding Tube Awareness 2014- Day 2

Today's topic:Share your tips for feeding on the go or in public! Where have you tube fed? Talk about the most unexpected places you've done tube feedings.

Where have we tube fed? Everywhere. Over the past year Jillian's feeding schedule has varried a lot. She has been on feedings from 10pm to 6am when she first got her NG tube. We were home every night to have her in bed and plugged in by 10pm. While the tube stayed in all the time we could not imagine having to feed her anywhere but home with the feeding pump.
Fast forward a month and Jillian got a NJ tube. J feedings have to be slow because your intestines can not handle a large amount of food at one time like your stomach can. When we left the hospital with the NJ tube she was being fed 24 hours a day. That first 24 hours at home was a hard adjustment but we learned how to live with the pump and make it a part of our life. Over the next few months she was able to back down to 18 hours a day. In January she was moved to 17 hours a day. That is around the shortest amount of time a day you can do J feeds.
When your child is hooked for 17-24 hours a day, the feeding pump becomes part of your life. I think I have carried a a purse a handful of times in the past year but I carry her feeding tube daily. She started carrying her own backpack at around 7 months old and spends a lot of her day carrying her own pump.
Here are some pictures of places she has been fed: