Feeding tubes are sometimes life saving necessities - but that doesn't mean that they're not annoying sometimes! Over the course of my eight years with a PEG tube, I've developed a few hacks to make everything a little bit easier.

Flag it

The #1 most annoying thing about a PEG tube is that you have a tube hanging out of your abdomen. It does NOT feel good to accidentally tug it and doing so may even pull it out! If you don't want to buy something to secure it to you or need to secure it to your body at the last second/temporarily, this is the trick for you!

This only requires medical tape (which you probably already have for your gauze pads!) and strategically placed medical tape (ONLY MEDICAL TAPE - PUT THE DUCT TAPE DOWN).

• Cut a 7cm/about 3in long piece of tape

• Put the tube on the middle of the tape, just slightly below the adapter ports

• Fold the tape together to form a little “flag” around the tube

• Lay the tube down against your skin

• Tape the flag down with another piece of tape

Removal

Cut the majority of the flag off - DO NOT CUT CLOSE TO THE TUBE!

• If you're unable to peel it off, you can slightly wet the tape or use baby oil or coconut oil to remove the adhesive

Bonus Crip Tip: use silk medical tape

Zip it

It's important to keep the bumper close to the skin! Not having it in the proper place can lead to leakage and thus, skin irritation. But sometimes, the bumpers move around as you move around. If this happens to you, you can help keep it in place with just a zip tie:

• Wrap a zip tie around your tube, just slightly (about a fingernail width) above the bumper stem

• CAREFULLY tighten the zip tie until it is lying against the tube - but NOT pinching it

• CAREFULLY cut the excess of it without nicking the tube!

Wrap it

Sometimes a zip tie isn't enough to keep the bumper from traveling; so for a wanderlustful bumper, you can keep it home with a rubber band:

• Take a standard size rubber band - preferably one that is a medium-thin width - and cut it once.

• Take your line of rubber band and wrap it around the tube; crossing it each time you start a new pass around the tube. Again, DO NOT PINCH IT

• When you've reached the end, tie it - double knot if possible

Wrap it 2

This is a good two-for-one hack for people with abdominal muscle issues, post orthostatic hypotension, abdominal swelling, etc: wear an abdominal binder! This ensures the tube will stay against your body and protects it from accidental tugging. When the tube was initially placed, you wore an abdominal binder - here's to putting it to use again!

NEVER WRAP YOUR ABDOMEN WITH AN ACE BANDAGE OR SIMILAR WRAPS!

Cover it

Ending with another two-for-one hack; wear maternity jeans/pants/shorts. Maternity bottoms have the stretchy “belly band”, which is perfect for tucking a PEG tube in!

If you're a wheelchair user, maternity bottoms are great alternatives to more expensive specialty wheelchair user jeans. You won't have to worry about them moving around a lot and potentially showing everyone your plumber's crack.

Remember that I'm not a doctor or healthcare professional, but just a spoonie who has tried a lot of DIY tricks and tried creating some of my own!