Pediatric care

suzanne4, RN · Jun 6, 2005

The smallest foley that I have used has been a 5fr. But only if it is going to be indwelling. For a straight or one time cath, then a feeding tube is just fine. There is nothing wrong with it. And there is a significant difference in price.

There are also one-time caths made for the pediatric population, especially kids with cervical injuries that need every four hour caths.

You asked for information but can you be more specific as to the age of the population that you are speaking of? Very few neonates are routinely cathed any more, usually a diaper weight is just fine, you want to limit sources of infection. There is a big difference in treating a child in PICU, than in NICU most of the time.

nursepotter05, RN · Jun 6, 2005

I work in a pediatric emergency department and we use feeding tubes for in and out caths, as well. The smallest feeding tube and foley cath we have is a 5fr. I don't know if the NICU uses smaller ones or not.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Jun 6, 2005

We use 5 or 8 french catheters for our NICU babies, we have kits for both indwelling (no ballon) and straight caths. We usually use 5 french for babies under 3 kilos. It's rare that we have to cath a micropreemie, but when we do a 5 french seems to work just fine.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Jun 6, 2005

Why not hear about a 3.5fr UAC line? Do they make a 3.5fr feeding tube? For the little ones, we use the UAC if we really need a urine..we don't leave these in as they aren't approved for this use.

We have Uricath kits...5 and 8's. They pee around those, but we rarely use a inflated foley, and then only on term kids. We only long term cath our kids that are paralyzed and on nitric or high osc settings so that we aren't bugging them to change a diaper.

klj836 · Jun 6, 2005

The smallest foley that I have used has been a 5fr. But only if it is going to be indwelling. For a straight or one time cath, then a feeding tube is just fine. There is nothing wrong with it. And there is a significant difference in price.
There are also one-time caths made for the pediatric population, especially kids with cervical injuries that need every four hour caths.
You asked for information but can you be more specific as to the age of the population that you are speaking of? Very few neonates are routinely cathed any more, usually a diaper weight is just fine, you want to limit sources of infection. There is a big difference in treating a child in PICU, than in NICU most of the time.

I am from a small rural hospital and most nurses, except those of the nursery and pedi unit, are uncomfortable catheterizing babies not yet toilet trained. Our specimens are sometimes contaminated with bag useage, expecially with babies who have diarrhea. The docs have asked for cathed specimens. I say it's techniques and a knowledge deficit when the nurses don't want to cath and that a 5 F is too large, it causes trauma. I am looking for cooraborating evidence that 5's are OK and caths are OK if good technique is used.

klj836 · Jun 6, 2005

I work in a pediatric emergency department and we use feeding tubes for in and out caths, as well. The smallest feeding tube and foley cath we have is a 5fr. I don't know if the NICU uses smaller ones or not.

The problem with the feeding tubes, even tho small, are the openings on the sides of the tubes are sometimes rough, more so that the 5F catheter. Size is the big issue and I cannot find a smaller tube. I think the 5's are fine and it's a performance of the task that's at issue. Thanks for your response.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Jun 6, 2005

Feeding tubes shouldn't be rough, if they are you need to send them back to the manufacturer. We have silastic feeding tubes. If you are talking peds, usually a 6 fr feeding tube will work, that is what we use on the floors. Babies are fine with a 5 fr. It sounds like you CNS or educator needs to step in an provide a lab/inservice of some sort.

mommatrauma, RN · Jun 6, 2005

We use 5 and 8 fr feeding tubes to cath...We transfer all of our admitted peds out to our 3 main Children's Hosp in Phila...If the child is so critical that they need an indwelling cath, we usu just leave the feeding tube in, tegaderm it to the inner thigh and keep a 3 or 5cc syringe hooked to the end or cap it off and intermittently pull off the urine. We leave it in until the child is transferred out and it will be replaced by receiving hosp. Our transport times are fairly quick when the child is that critical so they don't remain in for long...We've never had any complaints on doing it that way...The majority of our caths however are simply for sterile urine collection for the septic work-up or a quick blood in the urine check for trauma...So its not very often they need more than a simple straight cath...