When I give a feeding tube, I also supply some syringes for cleaning. 
Dish soap and water, then clear water forced through after every feeding 
is my cleaning recommendation. Feeding tubes used at breast or finger 
with the port end in the baby's mouth can usually last several weeks if 
used with human milk and cleaned carefully.

We really don't have any published research so this comes under 
'professional opinion and experience'. It would be an interesting 
project, culturing tubes used for varying amounts of time with human 
milk vs formula, cleaned with different methods.

Catherine Watson Genna BS, IBCLC  NYC  cwgenna.com


On 1/28/2011 2:05 PM, Sonya Shaver wrote:
> Hello all,
> When you have a mom using a feeding tube at the breast to supplement, how do
> you tell them to clean it?
>
> How long do you have them use one before replacing it, if they are using it
> every time they nurse?
>
> Many thanks,
> Sonya Shaver
>
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