An NG Tube is a naso-gastric tube inserted through the nose down into the stomach. Every facility has it's own standards and practices. Ours, from our local and world renowned Children's Hospital, included teaching competent parents how to replace and reinstall an NG tube before their child is discharged. Babies, toddlers, and children will likely have them come out due to pulling or even vomiting so being able to replace is a key help to avoid repeat ER trips. Otherwise the medial tube was rated for 30 day insertion and the tape was redone as needed. Even if you're not replacing the full tube yourself, you'll need to know how to re-tape and secure.
We prefer DuoDerm tape and Cavillion barrier wipes. To get prepped I precut the DuoDerm into two pieces. The first is a rounded edge square or a circle. The second is a small circle with a mustache line off of it. My awesome artwork below shows what I mean.
Starting with a fresh clean face we wipe the barrier wipe on the spots where tape will be placed, each cheek and under the nose above the lip. Then we choose the cheek closest to the nostril side the tube is inserted into. we measure and hold the NG tube secure across the cheek and back to the base of the ear. The first piece to be place is the small circle with mustache. secure the end of the mustache line over the NG tube itself on the side where NG is waiting. Stretch the line under the nostril and across then secure small circle on check. Piece one is placed.
Piece 2 secure the end of the mustache line and the cheek area where the NG tube is crossing. Place it and you're done! We only changed tape when it was completely necessary and not even time a corner started to turn up or a splash of food got on it. Removing the tape can make the skin more sensitive and injured so we tried to hold off.
NG Tubes can often be quite long so we used a homemade pacifier clip to roll the excess and pin on the back of his shirt when not in use!
