neonates and foley catheters

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

We recently had a 36wk premie, DUI, hypernatremia, stooling constantly. It was impossible to figure out how much was stool or urine, so a foley was ordered. At one point, while we were waiting for the catheter, I applied a U-bag to catch stool. From that I found she only had 2 grams of urine, and 40 grams of very nasty liquid stool.

The catheter was a regular 6 fr foley, with a 3cc balloon. We were told not to inflate the balloon, as the baby's bladder was too small to hold it.

Do you use foleys on your units? if so, do you inflate the balloon?

[fergus51]

We use caths specifically for babies. They don't have balloons to inflate, because like you said, the babies bladders' are too small. Just insert until you get urine then note where it's inserted (our caths have numbers on the side, or you can put a mark on them) and tape it in place.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

We usually don't use the balloon, we use the ones Fergus has, but with the bigger kids we will sometimes inflate the balloon with a cc or two.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

This is so timely!! I just had an infant the past 5 days with a variety of urinary drains of some sort. This was a term kid of about 3kg. At first he had an 8 french tube used as a foley (it was actually a feeding tube) without any balloon that was steri-stripped in (which of course worked well for many days then fell out as I undid his diaper the first time I ever assessed him. He then went for ureteral surgery and came back with a 6 french foley with a 3 cc balloon that was inflated though I don't know how many cc's they used.

Now I have had little experience with neonatal foleys, these wouldl be the first but my resource nurses the last couple of nights told me we generally use 5 or 6 french OG tubes (sterile of course) inserted until urine return then steri-stripped in place.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

We use foleys pretty often for babies who are pavulonized and have a lot of edema. It works out pretty good, especially for big PFC babies who don't like to be disturbed - they don't stool much and they're never on a wet diaper, plus we can constantly assess urine output.

I don't remember the brand name, but we have the kind with no ballon, either 5 or 8 french. We use tegaderm to hold them in, and it works pretty well unless there is a lot of leaking around the catheter.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

We use 5 French OGs. We don't use them often. I can only think of two pts I had that were cathed and they were neuro kids.

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

Thanks for your replies. The 6 fr foleys work ok without the balloon inflated. I didn't know that they made them without balloons, except our Quick-caths for specimens are straight. I think it worked best taped underneath her leg, as she is active, and when she is having problems she needs a lot of peri-care. Unfortunately, it's been two steps forward and one step back with this baby, so she has had foleys several times.

We used to use 5 fr og's, but several years ago one managed to get a knot in it, inside a baby girl. She had to go to the level III to have it removed. That's left us a bit leary of using feeding tubes.

[sparkyRN]

[We used to use 5 fr og's, but several years ago one managed to get a knot in it, inside a baby girl. She had to go to the level III to have it removed. That's left us a bit leary of using feeding tubes.

That's amazing!