How to Modify a Backpack for a Feeding Pump
Not getting on with the backpack your feeding pump came in? An ordinary one can carry the pump and feed bag, often with two small changes or none.
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The supplier picks the backpack that comes with a feeding pump. In r/feedingtube, one person's was hurting their back. Another buys small, normal-looking backpacks on purpose and adapts them with a pair of scissors.
If the bag you were handed hurts or holds nothing but the pump, adapting an ordinary one comes down to two jobs. The feed bag needs something to hang from, so it stays upright above the pump, and the tube needs a way out.
Do you need to modify it at all?
Often not. Three people in two threads changed nothing about the bag.
The person whose supplier bag hurt bought an Osprey day pack expecting to cut into it and never needed to. The feed bags hang from the top of the main compartment, the pump sits below them and the tube runs out the side of the zipper. A plain day pack like the Osprey Daylite Plus is that kind of bag.
In another thread, somebody drops the pump into one section of an ordinary backpack and primes the air out of the feed bag first, so it doesn't have to stay upright. A third says any basic bag works with an Infinity pump as long as the air is out of the bag.
Julia H. wrote up her DIY feeding pump backpack for the Oley Foundation, a charity for people on home tube feeding. Her insurance wouldn't pay for a pump backpack, so she adapted a cheap regular backpack rather than travel with her IV pole. She built it so a full bag would sit above the pump.
She soon found her pump ran in any position as long as the bag sat well above it. Now the pump just sits on the bottom. Whether your own pump cares is one to ask your supplier, since a thread can't tell you.
How to hang the feed bag
For everyone else, the first job is giving the feed bag something to hang from. Four ways turned up:
- A tubie clip. The person with the normal-looking backpacks hangs the feed bag from the top of the pack with one, so the bag stays upright.
- A carabiner. One reply had seen a video of somebody holding the bag up with a carabiner, though not how it was fixed on.
- Elastic bands. The Oley author holds hers in place with elastic bands, high in the pack.
- The water bladder's velcro. A student with a 20-litre hydration backpack sticks the feed bag to the velcro meant for the bladder, and the pump goes in the back pouch.
Where the tube comes out
This is where the answers split, and which exit suits your tube is your clinic's or supplier's call. What the bags themselves allow:
- A gap in the zipper. The Osprey owner runs the tube out the side of the zipper. Someone else says a backpack you already own takes the tubing through a gap in the zippers, with nothing cut.
- A hole. The normal-backpacks person cuts one in the bottom corner. The Oley author cut hers in a pocket and sealed the edge with a lighter or an iron-on patch.
- The straw hole. The hydration-pack student runs the tube out the hole meant for the straw. Someone in the other thread found a hydration pack sends the tubing out of the top of the bag, which is handy when it's going to your mouth but less so when it's going to your stomach.
Which backpack to start with
The one you already own, if it has these three things:
- Depth. The Oley author built hers deep enough for a full feed bag above the pump.
- A section the pump can have to itself. The person who drops the pump into one part of the backpack keeps the rest for everything else.
- Washable. One owner has used a washable Vera Bradley backpack nearly every day for about 15 months, with the pump, wallet and med bag in the main compartment. The tubing occasionally gets bent, but the rest of the time it's fine.
If you'd rather buy one made for a pump, one reply found the ones on Amazon mostly small. The larger purpose-made ones are more often on Etsy.
Try the feed bag in the backpack you already own before you buy anything. Clip it high in the main compartment, run the tube out the way your clinic or supplier told you, and wear it for a day. That tells you whether the backpack is deep enough.
Buy a plain day pack like the Osprey Daylite Plus only when it isn't, and save the scissors for a bag that's earned a hole.
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