urinary catheter in infants

[rusina]

Hi...

How long does the urinary catheter go in boys/girls urether?

I was taking care of one 7 months old boy, and put catheter number 6 (don´t know if you´re familiar with that size), and I wasn´t sure how long I should insert it. The bladder was empty, so I couldn´t depend on the urine to tell me how long to insert the catheter.

Hope you can help.

Sorry for my bad english.

Greetings for Iceland.

Kv. Rusina.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Boys have much longer urethras than girls do. A 6Fr catheter isn't very long, and a 7 month old would probably be fine with an 8Fr since even term newborns are often big enough for an 8Fr... but that's another topic. How do you tell if you're in far enough when there's no urine? For boys, I put it in as far as I can make it go, then put a little sterile water in the balloon. If the catheter doesn't slip out when I tug gently on it, I inflate the balloon to its full capacity, usually 2-5 ml. For girls, I do almost the same thing, only because their urethras are so much shorter, I don't worry if I still have a couple of inches of catheter on the outside.