G tube feeding

Jackson has a GJ feeding tube. GJ stands for gastric-jejunal, gastric being the stomach and jejunal is the small intestines. His tube has 3 ports... one is the gastric port which goes directly into the stomach, the second is the jejunal port which goes through the stomach and ends up in the small intestines, and the third port is the balloon that hold the tube in place when it is filled with water. It is a low profile button rather than a long tube, so it is easily hidden when not in use.

Here is a picture of it.

The port on the left is the gastric, the port on top is the jejunal port (it has an extension tube attached in this pic), and the port on the right is the balloon port. We keep a piece of gauze under it partly to cushion his skin from the button rubbing on it and partly to absorb any moisture.

Jackson originally had a G-tube placed but because of his vomiting the docs decided it would be better to feed him into his intestines so he would be able to get all his nutrition and the GJ was placed instead. So for over 2 years now we have been feeding him into his J port.

I decided that since his stomach was always full of bile anyway, we might as well try some feeds directly in the stomach. I was very surprised at how well Jackson has been doing with it. We have built up and now he takes all of his daytime nutrition and fluids through his G port! He still takes his night feeds by J tube, and we use the G port to drain his stomach while he sleeps.