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Does your feeding tube have ENFit connectors?
I recently got a new NJ tube that had the new ENFit connectors. Don’t even get me started on how unprepared I was for it. I wasn’t told anything about it, so I didn’t have any syringes to administer meds. Thankfully, the hospital sent me home with a short supply but even they said they were blindsided by this transition.
That was the least of my concerns, though. A couple of days later, the port that’s connected to the bag was stuck onto my NJ tube. I’m guessing the formula hardened and caused it? I don’t know, but no one could unscrew it for anything.
We tried soaking it with hot water, banging it with a wooden spoon, and a blow dryer to hopefully melt the plastic, and nothing worked. Finally, after 2.5 hours, pliers did the trick and got it open, but man… this shouldn’t be happening.
Does your feeding tube have ENFit connectors, and has it ever gotten stuck like that? How did you get it unstuck?
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6 Replies
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I also had a new ENFit G tube kind of dropped on me. It was a pain to switch.
A few things I noticed after I had to switch to G/J ENFit (they switched with no warning, but I was in hospital so I had time.
It is easy to over tighten the connection, so have pliers handy, needlenose is best.
Flush early and often. If the formula isn’t moving it will clog up, especially it connection area.
Purple is the connection color. Things that connect to ENFit are purple.
Feeding bags have both connections, unscrew the tip for purple. Older bags anyway, new bags have only ENFit.
I really like ENFit, I have less worry of connection popping open and syringes pushing free of tube.
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Thanks for the great tips, Scott. I think I’m going to like the ENFit a lot better too. Because I just have an NJ, it gets sluggish quickly and the syringes always spray back at me. I think the ENFit is going to give a better hold. I guess we’ll see!
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Personally, I can’t stand ENFit, and based on many posts on Facebook… There are a lot of people who are not thrilled about the swap.
The change has been coming for like 2 years, and we were all told it was going to happen, but then they didn’t do it for so long that we all forgot. Then, boom! It would have been nice if they had said “Okay. It’s happening in 6 months. Get ready!”
I have not made the switch yet, as I have a lot of the old supplies, but my friend highly recommends getting a little tool. She said that it saves her fingers because sometimes it’s really difficult to undo the connection. Go to Etsy and search “ENFit Wrench”. Seems like that might be exactly what you’re looking for.
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Yes that definitely sounds like what I need! The fact that someone had to create an ENFit wrench just goes to show that this connector was not designed properly lol. Thank you for the recommendation though. I’m going to go buy one right now!
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I was just sent an ENFit connector with my last Evrysdi order. Figured it was a mistake but maybe I should hang on to it.
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Definitely hang onto it so you’re not blindsided during the transition!
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