You will need to clean the skin around your feeding tube every day. You may want to keep the site covered with gauze for the first few days to absorb any drainage/discharge from the site of the incision. Once the tube site stops draining, you can leave it uncovered and open to air.
If the amount of drainage increases or if the area around the tube becomes red, warm, swollen or tender to the touch, notify your doctor as soon as possible.
To clean your tube site:
- Gather the following supplies: washcloth, gloves (optional), mild un-scented soap (antimicrobial), towel, cotton swabs or Q-tips, split gauze, scissors, paper tape
- Wash your hands or put on gloves.
- Dip a washcloth or piece of gauze into a bowl of warm, soapy water. Always use mild, unscented soap.
- Gently clean around the tube and under the plastic bolster. A Q-tip may be useful to clean underneath the bolster.
- Rinse the washcloth until it is free of soap and use it to rinse any residual soap from skin.
- Pat the area dry with a towel.
- If your tube is new or draining, take a new, clean gauze pad and cut a slit halfway across the gauze. (You may also use a pre-split gauze sponge.)
- Fit the gauze around the tube and apply a piece of paper tape to edges if necessary to keep gauze on skin.
- To keep tube from being pulled on when not in use, coil tube and tape to skin when not using it.
Paper tape is the gentlest on the skin and painless to pull off.
Once your stoma site has healed (which can take up to a week), it should not cause you any pain. If you are experiencing pain at the site of your feeding tube, call your doctor.
