5 Indispensable Tips for Tube Feeders

When you start tube feeding, those two items below become your best friends. You sleep with them every night and they occasionally bug you. From formula leakages to power outages, tube feeding can be a lot. Here are some tips to reduce your anxiety about tube feeding. (Because those accidents are going to happen. Trust me.)

Love your tube

This is probably the most important one. Loving your tube may be as simple as telling yourself each night, “I look beautiful with a tube.” Even if the tube is physically uncomfortable, you must find a way to love it. It is a part of who you are now; you cannot change your situation. Just remember, your tube makes you unique.

Heavy Baggage

With any nasogastric tube comes an infinitely long packing list including about 30 cartons of nutritional formula, syringes, measuring jars, and a formula pump. These could basically take up a suitcase–trust me, it’s not fun. Divide the supplies into several bags, so each one is slightly lighter. Weigh all your luggage before you leave to make sure that you have not exceeded any weight limits…that happened more than once to my parents.

Uncomfortable

Let’s face it. Tube feeding is uncomfortable and will be uncomfortable for the first few years. I felt a tingling sensation in my nose and sneezed like crazy, which made it slightly harder to fall asleep. The tingling sensation is normal–my nasal cavity was not used to having something in there. You will get used to it. Just be patient–you got this!

Time crunch

You will have to flush out your tube with a syringe each morning, which might take ~15 minutes. Wake up a little earlier each morning to avoid the hassle. Why? You can allow yourself some quiet time after you have finished your morning routine. Use your quiet time to practice mindfulness or do some yoga…tube feeding is stressful enough, so you deserve a pause!

Always ask

Keywords: Inflammatory Bowel Disease, IBD, chronic illness, spoonie, chronic, sick, Crohn’s disease, Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, ill, illness, awareness, blog, chronic illness/IBD blog, IBD blog, chronic illness blogger, IBD or Inflammatory Bowel Disease blogger, IBD awareness, Collin Wong Blog, illness blog

Related posts:

Day two of the 2018 Kenner League tipped off today at McDonough Gym on the campus of Georgetown University. Clyde’s and Higher Level were the first game of the day. It was a tale of two halves in an…

CCI Services offers professional commercial kitchen maintenance, repair and installation. We can repair your commercial fridges, freezers and extractor hoods. Call us today on 0800 644 2727. We can…

In the previous post, I briefly mentioned burnout. It happened to me after one month of studying programming — rather soon! I suppose the reason is that, for a beginner, the amount of time needed to…