Feeding Issues

[Julie B]

My mom hangs a bag with her formula, and uses the syringe for her meds. She currently consumes one can each of 1.0 and 1.5 Nutren at each meal. The problem is that it takes 2½ hours for each feeding, because she says if she speeds up the drip, she gets reflux.

Is there anything that can improve this? I suggested changing her formula to 2.0, so she can get the calories she needs in less time, but maybe it's a different issue entirely.

Any suggestions?

 

[rachelg]

I am not quite sure how it works over with you but here in the UK PALS are strongly advised to have their feed at a very slow rate to avoid reflux, sickness, bloat etc. My husband has 1650 calories in 1100 mls of feed - containing all the vitamins, calcium, nutrients etc that he needs. He has his feed during the night fed over 7 hours. This regime works for us because, feeding, at no time interferes with our daily life and the slow rate keeps things settled.

 

[Jellycat]

The advice we received was similar to Rachel. We used a pump for feeding and the rate was much slower for feed than water for instance. Your idea Julie to increase the calories in the content rather than the rate/speed it passes through the tube sounds good to me.

 

[Sara Lee]

My husband gets jevity 1.5 through a pump at a very slow rate, otherwise he gets a stomach ache. For meds and water, I use a 2 oz. syringe. Half of the 5 and a half cans, I set up to go through the night so it doesn't tie him up all day.

 

[LizT]

I agree. Continuous feeding may work best for her. We Put two cans of formula and a can of water (water helps the formula flow thru easier) into the bag and do a gravity feeding. Once in the afternoon and once over night. Seems to work well.

 

[Mrs C]

My husband is fed with 60 ml syringes. I push 10 ml very slowly then stop for a minute, until the syringe is empty I do meds in between each syringe (one can of 2 cal per feeding) and it does take about an hour. He gets GasX if he ends upnwith gas anyway. Try different things until you find something that works,