How to know if your GJ tube is flipped

If you have a GJ tube, you may or may not have experience with tube flips. You can read about what a tube flip is in this post, but it’s basically when your “J” port of your feeding tube slides out of your jejunum and into your stomach. If you use your J tube for feeds, this is especially problematic because your formula is probably leaking into your stomach right now.

If you’re not vomiting up formula (yet) but feel like something is “off” about your GJ tube, it’s possible that it’s flipped. While the only way to prove it to a doctor is with an x-ray checking for tube placement, it’s helpful to know for yourself before you go through the process of asking for an X-ray order- and there’s a trick on how to know! Someone shared this with me when mine kept flipping and I think it’s ingenious.

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OKAY-

Attach your extension to your “J'“ port.

Color saline with BLUE food coloring— blue is the most distinct color that you won’t mistake for bile, etc.

Push 30 ml of blue saline into your J.

Disconnect your extension and reconnect it to your “G” port.

Drain your G. If it drains blue saline, that means what’s going in your J port is actually going into your stomach.. which means your J tube has coiled up into your stomach, defeating the purpose of a J tube altogether.

Hope this helps— I know it helped me!

LOVE,

Jaime