How long can you use a tube feeding bag?

Most patients that have a feeding tube like a G tube, GJ tube, or peg style tube will use a pump and feeding tube bags to supply their nutrition. Typically, the DME (Durable Medical Equipment) provider will send enough bags for each month.

Unfortunately, depending on your insurance or if you do not have insurance coverage, you may not get enough bags every month.

Ideally, you would have a new feeding tube bag for every day or 24 hours. In some instances, this would become very expensive for those that have to “self-pay” for supplies.

In a hospital type setting, they have protocols in place to replace feeding tube bags every 24 hours. In a home setting, a feeding tube bag can be cleaned and re-used.

You would want to clean the bag with warm soapy water and then flush the bag well to make sure that the bag is fully clean with no soapy residue.

The easiest way to dry a feeding tube bag is to hang it upside down. I have seen some people use bottle drying racks to hang the bags and collect any moisture that falls out.

Bags could be reasonably used a couple days and even up to a week if it is cleaned well. Some formulas that contain a lot of orange coloring may stain the bags over time.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you can store a feeding tube bag with food in it in the refrigerator if needed. Most of the time you would only want to put 4 hours’ worth of food in the bag at a time.

The hang time for most formula is 4 hours or less, but you can extend this by putting the feeding tube bag in an insulated bag with ice packs.

Overall, feeding tube bags are an essential supply and need to be maintained. If you are not able to fully clean a bag, it will need to be thrown away.

If you need more feeding tube bags then what you receive, then you can get in contact with trade groups on Facebook, contact your social worker from the hospital, or check with local medical closets. (Medical closets are charities that help distribute donated equipment and supplies.)

For more information, check out “G Tube and GJ Tube Extension Care” and “DME Supplies (What you should get and what to do if you need more!)“