Some tips for Peg tubes
So you have had an operation and now you have a PEG feed with Bolus feeds.
As a result you will now be on a ‘feed’ that consists of a formula normally delivered in 200ml bottles. Depending on your situation you probably need to have been 4 and 7 bottles a day.
When I first was sent home with a PEG feed I was not given much information about how to make the process easy and the feeding process was slow, messy, annoying and restrictive and I hated it. It took me sometime to work out the easy way to PEG feed and in the hope of saving some people some time below is a list of a few things they may help make things easier, efficient and flexible so you can eat where and when you want.
EATING
Option 1 – they way they tell you in hospital
This may vary from hospital to hospital but from my experience the typical advice is using a 60ml Syringe with the plunger out, hold the syringe in the air and gradually pour your 200ml bottle through the syringe letting gravity feed that through. You repeatedly fill the syringe until the bottles are empty. When you are finished you then put some water through the syringe to flush and then your done.
This process can be slow – as you need to do the process over and over to get through your feed and messy – as it is easy to spill the feed when filling the syringe.
Option 2 – poor your feeds into a larger bottle and let it all flow through in one go
By buying the right equipment you can put all the feed you need into one larger bottle and let it all flow through without having to hold and pour your food in slowly one after the other.
the process: Fill up a large container, connect to the container to a tube, hang the container and let it flow, adjusting if needed the speed as it happens.
the equipment: You can purchase this equipment from a number of medical suppliers, I have included links to the Australian provider I use but other there are other options if you search the web.
- The container – This is so you can pour your food into it. note: You can get 500ml or 1000ml versions but I recommend the 1000ml as you need more volume than the food because air is drawn out when you are feeding. You can also get a harder or flexible container.
Bright Sky link or 
Bright Sky link - Gravity Feeding Set This will connect to the bottle on one side and your peg tube on the other, a small adjuster in the middle allows you to control how fast it flows if required
Bright Sky link - The hookYou will need to be able to hang the bottle above you, as you have some good length on the cable you can hang it a decent distance. You can normally find a hanging point in most rooms like a door, a lamp or something similar. These are the things and the methods I use to make hanging easy.
- HEROCLIP Carabiner Clip – This allows you to hook the bottle onto almost anything, This particular clip is the best as it is flexible to accommodate a variety of hanging situations and the rubber on the end means you can easily hook it to things like a window ledge.
amazon link - Suction Hooks – Also worth adding to your equipment is these suction hooks. You can easily stick them to any window and easily remove them once done, they easily hold a container full of liquid.
amazon link - *Stick behind the bed –* If you like to have the food from your bed a tip is to get a thin piece of wood and then screw a little hook into it and put it behind the bedhead. It takes 5 minutes to-do and will make things very convenient.
Other tips
When you are on the move.
- Cover for your tubeyou will get some seepage from your tube, so you don’t go through a thousand shirts you can get some covers that go around it and soak up all the yuk.
Amazon Link - Expandable cups, its easy to get water but often when your out you can only get bottles of water which make it difficult to quickly give yourself via syringe. I find having an expandable cup in the bag useful if you need to have water or your medication. These are thin when not being used and easily expand so you can fill them up with water from a bottle and suck up into your syringe easily.
- A Sling bag a sling bag is really useful to have what you need on the go and also keep emergency medication, a syringe, tissues and other things you might need on the go. A sling bag can be taken anywhere including into concerts and never needs to be checked in.
Amazon link - Pill Crusher
Hope the above is helpful to those out there, would love to get any feedback if anyone has other suggestions or if this article has been helpful