Every parent has those moments when they go in to check on their sleeping angels before going to bed only to smell something unpleasant and realize they need to wake the child and do a quick dirty diaper change. I just had a moment like this but it's not like what you'd imagine it to be.
Not 30 seconds after publishing my last post about not jiggling the babies when I hear a little cough from Evan over the monitor. I think, well it's almost the end of his feeding pump bolus right around the time he would puke in his sleep, so I better get up there and turn the pump off and give him a little break. I get in the room and he's sleeping peacefully. But I smell a very distinctive smell. Not the smell of poop. No, that would be easy. It's the smell of formula. Poor Evan is snoring away peacefully while laying in an enormous puddle of very cold formula. His diaper is soaked, jammies are soaked, blanket is soaked, the pillow is soaked, even the waterproof sheeting is soaked in ice pack chilled formula.
Despite having the lovely and wonderful sanity saving AMT clamp to keep the feeding tube connected to the adapter in his belly so that the tube won't pop out when tugged thus leaking formula all the time, we can't do a whole lot about the tiny medicine syringe port on the side of the feeding tube adapter. (see the tiny little spout on the side of the feeding tube in the picture above) From time to time this little button port will pop open and formula and stomach fluids leak everywhere until you stop it. I have no idea how much formula he did not get in his belly, but from the size of the mess I'm guessing it was pretty much his entire overnight feeding. Grrrr....
I just had to wake Evan up, strip him down, wash as much of the formula off as possible (elemental based enteral feeding formulas are a nasty concoction that are thick and sticky and smell very strongly), get him dressed, strip his bed down and replace all the bedding. At least he was too tired to wake up completely and so his crying stopped once I put him back down on a fresh pillow. Poor kid, it's just not his day.
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3 comments:
Ugh, I HATE it when that happens!! It used to happen a lot to my little one, but it hasn't happened in a while. I hate that formula smell that hits your nose when you walk in the room, lol...Definitely worse than a poopy diaper any day!
We had SO much trouble with leaky tubes when my guy still had the NG tube (and it didn't seem like the AMT clamp fit that). We've only had the g-tube for about a week, and I was just telling my husband that we HAVE to order an AMT clamp ASAP. I think we're pushing our luck here. I am SO SO glad that you found my blog so I could come find yours too. This g-tube stuff is still brand new to us, so you can bet I'll be following your story closely. (PS. My guy was born early due to IUGR as well...he was 36 weeks, but 4 pounds and 9 oz) Take care!
Also, about the med port: We just tape ours shut since we don't use it. We do un-tape it daily to wash it out, just to be safe. Even if you DO use it for medicines, maybe tape would help? It's not perfect and does leave a sticky residue, but that has helped prevent leaks for us.
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