Keeping Tube Feeding Delivery Clean

In the Hospital

At Home

Delivering tube feeding at home is all about the meal.  In fact using the word "delivery" feels wrong, but since that's best description for this part of tube feeding, we'll make do with it.  In part 1 of "Clean Tube Feeding" we covered filling and storing nutrition using the Bolee Bag.  In this part of "Clean Tube Feeding" we'll address different ways to deliver tube feeding with the bFed System and how to keep it clean.

Using the Bolink Large Cap

The Bolink Large Cap is easily connected to a filled Bolee Bag and then connected to a feeding tube.  Once the Bolink Large Cap is connected  to the Bolee . Bag and your feeding tube, you have a home tube feeding "closed system".  The food in the Bolee Bag now has a protected fluid path, the Bolink Large Cap tubing, to travel to the feeding tube during the course of your meal, preventing contamination during delivery. Remember, touch contamination is when nutrition comes into contact with something in the external environment, like a finger, that could contaminate it.  Keeping the nutrition clean with the Bolee Bag/Bolink Large Cap system is a lot easier than using a syringe to deliver 60mLs at time.  Each time the syringe is filled or connected to the tube or  nutrition is poured down the syringe "funnel" there's an  opportunity for touch contamination. 

Using the Bolink Small Cap

The nutrition in pureed food pouches is a great option to include real food into a tube feeding diet.  But before the Bolink Small Cap the only way to use this food for tube feeding was to squeeze the pureed nutrition into a syringe and "inject" it into the feeding tube or extension set, 60 mLs at a time.  That process provides plenty opportunity for the food to be touched and contaminated. 

Screwing the Bolink Small Cap on to the pureed food pouch is not only easier, but it creates a home tube feeding closed system, just like the Bolee Bag and Bolink Large Cap does. The food in the pouch flows directly through the Bolink Small Cap tubing to the feeding tube or extension set without being touched, reducing the chance of contamination during feeding similar to what is done in the hospital.  This direct connection to a food container is unique and the only home bolus or gravity tube feeding system that creates such a closed system. 

Using the EZ Fill System

Some people just need a syringe to deliver tube feeding. Their tube feeding may be thick or they need the precise control that a syringe provides.  We heard from customers that they were having a hard time keeping tube feeding with a syringe clean due to the amount of filling, refilling and connecting it takes. Adding the ENFit tip design on top of this, maintaining cleanliness is a challenge.  The ENFit tip is threaded so the nutrition sticks to the threads when you dip into the container for filling.  It is easily transferred to the feeding tube when you connect which makes a mess and increases the risk of contamination. Recognizing this, we worked with at home syringe users to give them a "closed system" just for them.

The bFed EZ fill kit is the solution we came up with. The EZ Fill kit gives you a clean way to fill your syringe. The Bolee Bag protects the nutrition from touch contamination, the ENFit transfer lid keeps the threads on the ENFit tip clean and free of formula and the filling process limits touch contamination during delivery.  For details on how to use the system see the video below.

The U Deliver Medical tagline is "Tube Feeding Made Easy".  That's what the bFed System is all about.  Listening to people doing tube feeding and approaching it from their perspective creates new options like a "closed system" for at home use.