It seems like when we feed my husband with the peg tube he gets diarrea Is that normal? Do I need to ask the drs. for a different type of feeding?
He is having problems swallowing his pills is that something that we can put in the tube?
Pat

Pat, please add a signature line so we can better answer your questions.

Before crushing any pills to put down the peg tube ask the doctor. Certain medications can not be crushed. Better yet, ask the doc if the meds are able to come in liquid form.

In regards to the feedings, have you watered down the formula? It will make it easier to digest. Add about 1/2 can extra water per can. Not everyone can tolerate every formula. I went thru 3 before I found one that I could digest. Also once your husband starts taking strong pain meds then he will wish for the diarhea again. Try adding some benefiber to his formula. It could also be how fast he is being fed that could be bothering him. Slow it down.

Its very easy to add these things if he is using the feeding machine to do nightly feedings. Then you can load a bag of formula and water and set it for him to slowly get fed overnight. Make sure he is propped up on at least 2 pillows.

Hi Pat,

I had that problem too. I always suspected that although the cans claim to be lactose-free, they aren't. Like Christine suggests, try adding water to the formula and make sure he's getting lots of fluids to avoid dehydration.

have been taking enough pain pills from the beginning that my PEG diarhea has been perfectly balanced with the narcotic constipation. !!!
In my experience, vicodin does NOT do well in a PEG tube even if crushed up as it clots and clogs the tube. All my other pain pills and nausea drugs (percocet, oxycodone, Zofran, Compazine) crush well and work okay in the tube and I did clear each of them with my doctors (one even put it on the script bottle instructions: crush and insert w/water in PEG)
None of my chain pharmacies were able to come up with liquid versions without "special ordering" and a week delay. the Hospital pharamacy did have liquid percocet - Roxicet, which has worked well. The chain pharms don't like to carry "narcotics" around here due to junkie breakins and DEA paperwork hassle.

Pat,

A frequent reason for diarrhea post PEG tube feeding is due to the osmotic load of the feeding formula. I wrote a little excerpt months ago about how I weaned myself into PEG feedings. I'm attaching below to explain thoroughly what I had to do. Basically small doses and a lot of water were the essentials at the start. As my body adjusted, I added more nutrition. I found that 50% nutrition and 50% H20 was a good way to go. Here's what I posted a while ago. Good luck!:
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When I lost the ability to take in food orally, I had to rely more on my Gtube and Jevity 1.5 Cal cans. I thought the Jevity would surely be the answer to maintaining weight, but I had serious issues with osmotic diarrhea when I first attempted to put a can in. I did not want to be stuck on a pump at night or in the day, so I ended up taking about three days and training my body to accept the gravity feeds and increase tolerance.

For those of you who have had this issue and would like to attempt to remain pump-free...let me explain. The first day of trying Jevity by gravity, I put in 50ml of Jevity and 100 ml of H20 every 2hours starting at 7am until 9am. Then at 11am, 1pm, and 3pm, I added 75 ml Jevity and 150 ml H20. At 5pm, 8pm, and 10pm, I then put in 100 ml Jevity and 200 ml H20. If during any of this I got diarrhea again, I went to the previous dose increment and continued that for a few more hours until I felt ready to try an increase. For Day 2, I did 100 ml Jevity and 200ml H20 at 7am and 10am. If all went well, then I increased to 150 ml Jevity and 250 ml H20 every three hours for the rest of the day. On Day 3, I began with 150 ml Jevity and 250 to 300 ml of H20 at 7am and 10am. Then three hours later I attempted 200 ml of Jevity and 400ml H20. When it was clear I tolerated that, I graduated to putting all 237 ml of Jevity in at a time with 2x the amount of water. I'm sure I could have gotten away with less water, but I was very afraid to encounter osmotic diarrhea again so almost always used the 1:2 ratio of Jevity:H20 from here on out. By day four, I was able to get my 5 cans of Jevity in with 5 feedings. Each feeding took about 20 to 30 minutes (usually water flew in and Jevity took it's time with gravity).

My boyfriend just got his PEG in today. I'll take note of your input here as we get going on the 'eating.'

Just because you have a PEG this does not mean that you have to use the canned food exclusively, at least not initially.
Using a mixer you can make vegetables and past small enough so that it passes through the PEG. (using a 50 cc syringe). Just make sure you do not clog the PEG otherwise there will be a big mess. Also using a syringe you can get 50 ml into the stomach very quickly, you need to watch this so that it is not uncomfortable, especially with respect to temperature.

M

Markus is right. Maybe the speed doesn't help. I know that when I fed Martin it used to take 20 minutes to feed him a mug of Ensure. Otherwise he had very bad belly aches. Also I used to make him sit up for the feeding and 20 minutes after. Otherwise he felt bloated because the liquid sat on top of his stomach and gravity didn't do it's job.

I asked about blending food and putting it into the peg but they told me that I couldn't do that. I needed to stick to the formula.
Pat

We have been doing better. I have mixed the solution with water and that has helped a lot. I also feed him very slowley and use warm not cold water to dilute and before and after the feeding. He has not had diarrea and his stomach has been doing better. He does take the nausa pills now that they gave him so I think that's proably a good idea as well.
Thanks for all the help.
Pat