oral care

[spacey]

Since the disappearance of VAP-guard ...... what are other units using for oral care?

It would be great to make a survey -- we are sort of not doing anything but we are considering:

(a) Normal Saline

(b) Sterile Water

© Breast Milk -- for those babies whose moms are pumping.

None of the products being used in PICU have been tested on neonates -- so we have ruled those out. Thoughts? ......

[NebraskaRN]

Upstate NY regional medical center

sterile water

[aerorunner80, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN]

We use the NS bullets that we also use to clean out our Ballards after suctioning. Typically we put just a tiny amount in the mouth to loosen the secretions and then use the nasal aspirator to suction it out. If we have a baby who is particularly gooey in the mouth, we will use the suction cathters (still using the NS bullets) to get more in the back of the mouth.

[Bortaz, MSN, RN]

We swab the mouths with these little pink-headed spungy swabs-on-a-stick, sort of lemon-y tasting...dip them in sterile water and swab the gunk away. Also suction with a typical oral suction thing-a-ma-bob.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

We use sterile water and a toothette or a guaze. and yuck to the saline bullets...would you want salt water in your mouth!

We are looking into breastmilk for mouthcare too...that is going to be a PI project for our unit.

[Preemie2RN]

We use Sage Oral care packets- it contains several swabs, mouth rinse (used on the swabs) and a mouth moisturizer. We have had really good success with this product.

[tarabrooke77]

Children's Mercy KCMO

Sterile water with mouth swabs and nasal aspirator

[tex-anna]

Saline and sterile q-tips.

[NebraskaRN]

and gauze or q-tips.....Tampa area regional medical center: sterile water, gauze, q-tips, and pink tipped oral care swabs

[MegNeoNurse]

Yuck to normal saline!! I wouldn't like the salt water in my mouth either.... I miss VAP guard We get an order for Biotene. This comes up from pharmacy, 1 per patient, its on oral gel that we swab the mouth with on a cotton tipped applicator. It's an iterim solution until we find something comperable to VAP guard. Some people in our unit will use breast milk as well applied in the same fashion.

[BabyLady, BSN, RN]

We use Sage Oral care packets- it contains several swabs, mouth rinse (used on the swabs) and a mouth moisturizer. We have had really good success with this product.

This is what we use and we haven't had a VAP in months.

[spacey]

Thanks for the input! -- We've just started using Biotene.... so far I'm not a fan. Many of us seem to find it doesn't help prevent the lip goo the way VAP guard did and it sometimes even seems to turn into a thick gel glob in their mouth an hour or so after application. Seems like the VAP guard just dissolved or was absorbed. Any other experiences with this product..... good or bad?