The Bolee Bag & Bolink Caps as a Closed System - Clean Tube Feeding
Keeping Tube Feeding Delivery Clean
In the Hospital
In the hospital tube feeding is handled much like medicine such as antibiotics. It is packaged in special containers and delivered via an infusion pump at a prescribed rate. The connections for the tube feeding closed system used in hospitals and nursing homes are all about maintaining a "closed" fluid path for the nutrition for it to travel from its sealed container through to the feeding tube.
The pathway starts at the container with its sterile packaged nutrition. The container is attached to the pump tubing using a special tube feeding "cross spike". The other end of the pump tubing connects to a feeding tub with a using either ENFit or Christmas Tree design connector.
This "closed system" protects the sterile nutrition from being contaminated during feeding, allows it to "hang" on an I.V. pole and be delivered with a pump at slow rate for up to 48 hours. When you're critically ill in an ICU bed, your tube feeding has a specific purpose and must delivered in a precise way to achieve a desired outcome. It is medicine.
At home your nutrition is a very important to maintaining good health, especially if you have a feeding tube, but there's more to it than just "medicine". There's a need for variety in your food and being social. That's why a hospital closed system doesn't work that well at home. A closed system has to be safe, easy to use and flexible like with the Bolee Bag & Bolink Caps.
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 Bolee Bag & Bolink Caps 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 hand, 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 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 Bolink D Cap
The Bolink D Cap serves as your essential and reliable link between cartons and feeding tubes, designed with both simplicity and functionality in mind. To use it, simply attach the Bolink D Cap screwcap to any carton from trusted brands such as Nestle HealthScience or Kate Farms. Once securely fastened, you can then connect the ENFit end directly to the feeding tube. This creates a clean, closed connection that ensures safety and hygiene, eliminating any concerns regarding spills or contamination that may arise during feeding.
For maintenance, remember to rinse the tubing thoroughly under a faucet, and allow it to air dry completely between uses to ensure its longevity and cleanliness.
The U Deliver Medical tagline is "Tube Feeding Made Easy". That's what the Bolee Bag and Bolink Caps are 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.
