Tube feeding question

Jenrn2203

Our 24 weeker now 46 weeker is finally coming home monday! Yahoo! We are so excited! But she is coming home on a NG tube to supplement her feedings bc she is not taking full feeds yet. We are getting closer ! So we will be getting a kangaroo pump from the home health agency and the pump goes by ml/hr , we are looking for a conversion to use because its not a continuous feed, so we don't have an exact rate, some feedings she will take 90 out of 100ml and we need to supplant her the 10cc other times she takes 40/100 and we need to supplement then too. So her feedings would go over minutes . Like 15 min or 30 depending how much she needs supplementing. Does anyone know of a calculation to use to find a rate ? Like for example : 65cc over 30 min or 30cc over 15 min or where to find info to help us

dandywarhol

Congrats on the homecoming! Can you ask the NICU dr or nurse? 

kelly422

Good for your LO! Your doc should have this all outlined for you on your discharge. Don't worry, they won't let you go home without knowing how much to give.

ETA how much to give and how to figure out the calculation.

Babymaxwell513

You would divide 60 the number of minutes in an hour by the number of minutes you want the feed to go and then multiply that number by the ccs left

ex. If you wanted to give 30 ccs over 15 minutes you would divide 60 by 15 which equals 4 and then multiply 4 times 30 which equals 120 so your rate would be 120 ml/hr

Let me know if I need to explain this a different way.. I am an anesthetist so I work with fluid rates everyday but my ability to explain is sometimes lacking!

Good luck and congrats on getting to take your baby home!

rednelson

Babymaxwell513:

You would divide 60 the number of minutes in an hour by the number of minutes you want the feed to go and then multiply that number by the ccs left ex. If you wanted to give 30 ccs over 15 minutes you would divide 60 by 15 which equals 4 and then multiply 4 times 30 which equals 120 so your rate would be 120 ml/hr Let me know if I need to explain this a different way.. I am an anesthetist so I work with fluid rates everyday but my ability to explain is sometimes lacking! Good luck and congrats on getting to take your baby home!

This is a good explanation.

You can also think of it as setting up some fractions. Say you want to give 15 ml over 10 minutes.  You would set up an equation to solve for x, as in:

15 ml/10 min = x ml/60 min(1 hour).  Cross multiply to solve for x.

10x=900 ==> x=90.  Then you set the pump to run at 90 ml/hr.

I'm a nurse and the kangaroo pumps are very user friendly.  Just make sure if you use the auto prime feature to prime the tubing to disconnect it from your LO, don't want to pump that tiny belly full of air. Pretty sure the pump even reminds you to disconnect. Good luck.  

thishappyhouse

Congrats.  how exciting!  

Im only familiar with the pumps that we had in our NICU but those automatically would adjust the the time if you put in the volume and rate.  Alternatively you could manually put in the volume and time.  Looks like you got good explainations above if you have to manually enter everything.  The med supply company should also be able to help you.   

mcarter127

thishappyhouse:

Congrats.  how exciting!  

Im only familiar with the pumps that we had in our NICU but those automatically would adjust the the time if you put in the volume and rate.  Alternatively you could manually put in the volume and time.  Looks like you got good explainations above if you have to manually enter everything.  The med supply company should also be able to help you.   

The kangaroo pumps that I've worked with will automatically convert it. Her Dr will give you the rate & then you'll just enter the volume & it will set the infusion time. Don't worry though, they'll give you training on the actual pump before you have to do it alone! The home health agency will send out a nurse who will give you all the info you need.

Congrats on the impending discharge!  

zoeyandsummersmom

Kanagroo pumps are very easy to use and they should give you a run through before discharge or from the home health agency. Just a heads up there have been a few issues with the kangaroo joey bags having bad batches. For catch up feeds after bottle feeding, we use syringes and do a bolus feed rather than using the pump.

The great thing about the Kangraoo Joey is there is continuous mode and a bolus mode. where you can set it to do a set amount for a set period of time with intervals in between.