This backpack, along with the enteral pump for which it is desinged (Enteralite Infinity) has completley made life with my G-tubed 1-year-old far more efficient and pleasant! As soon as my baby went mobile--and could escape his crib--his former enteral pump on an IV stand at his cribside was no longer a doable or safe option (he had the abilty to escape the distance his tubing allowed him, but not enough intellect to know NOT to!). After that, we tried solely bolous feed, but for more reasons than I can get into here, it wasn't the best all-the-time option for him, so we investigated better options and came up with the Entaralite Infinity pump which is lightweight and easily and efffictly mobilized with this backpack.Here's why I love it:
1)It securely and dependably keeps his pump, feed bag, and exess tubing in place.
2)It's easy to get everything in place properly without fuss or struggle.
3)It's sized and engineered perfectly for even very young patients...about as soon as they're stable walkers, this backback is reasonable for them. My son weighes just 20 lbs, is 1 1/2 years old, and handles the filled backpack well. He wears it both while sleeping and at play, and it hinders neither. He can rough around on the playground just as easily and unbridled as any other kid his age. It is comfortable to him (I think he'd be quite opinionated about wearing it if it wasn't!), fastens easily and very securely. No matter how busy he is, no matter what he's doing (rolling, being upside-down, laying, running, etc!), it stays in place on his back without needing adjusted or fixed.
4)Surprisingly discreet! It doesn't scream medical paraphanalia. He gets a few compliments per errand run about his 'cute little backpack,' by strangers who seem to have no idea that it's a feeding pump (they often ask if he has toys or diapers or snackies in there...I suppose snackies is thereabouts accurate, though). Yeah, the end of the tubing inevitably peeks out a little slit and disappears under clothing a few inches later, but you're be AMAZED at how many people don't notice that. Bolous feeding in a restaurant gets you shy stares. Upon seeing him being bolous fed, the public seemed to identify him as a little guy to feel a little sorry for. The backpack surprisingly makes it much more secretive, because it looks like, well...just a backpack. Eventually neighbors asked why they see him so often with his backpack "Is it, like, his escutiry object or something?". They had no idea he was walking around with entaral equiptment. Makes it easier for him to be accepted as the fun, capable, busy liitle guy that he is, and not identified by his medical needs.
The ONLY complaint I have about it is although durable, the fabric gets a lot of fluffy little scuffy wispy strings pretty quickly, which makes it look more worn that it would look with a sturdier canvas. I assume that the upside is that this fabric used is somewhat easier to wipe clean in a pinch...not entirely but a bit less absorbant than your typical canvas backpack fabric, but I still think I'd prefer a bit sturder and wear-resistant yet still washable.
Overall? Love it, love it, love it, and I think my son agrees. He certianly prefers it by far over bolousing.
Buy EnteraLite Infinity Super-Mini Backpack for EnteraLite Feeding Pumps Now
When we changed insurance a while back the new insurance company didn't cover our old feeding pump and switched us to the Enteralite Infinity pump and it came with the super mini backpack because our son was 4 months old (however we didn't start using the backpack right away). The backpack is perfectly sized for the pump and feeding bag. The shoulder straps are super cushioned and it does have a nice quality clip on the front to help keep the backpack on. We didn't start really using the backpack until our son started crawling and it definitely helped us out so we didn't have to push or carry his feeding pump around with him while he was cruising and he was able to start wearing it around 6 months of age and it didn't seem to really give him any issues with being able to move around.With that being said; the material of the backpack itself is fairly cheap and does stain quite easily and this backpack doesn't hold up super well in the washing machine. If you do purchase this backpack I would suggest hand washing and hanging it up to dry or use a gentle, short cycle. The zipper on ours pulled apart on the main compartment and we were not able to fix or replace it because of how small this bag is and how it is assembled (we even tried taking it to a seamstress and we were told there was no way that they could fix it). The velcro that goes around the top of the feeding bag got weak over time and stopped supporting the weight of the bag so we started having more "no flow out" and "bag empty" alarms from the bag falling out of the velcro and the tubing becoming occluded. However, we where able to circumvent this issue by using the clip that is also attached at the top of the inside of the backpack to hold the feeding bag in place.
The picture on here doesn't show it but this backpack has two slits on either side of the smaller zipper compartment which allows you to pass the extension tubing through it. While this is nice for while the child is wearing the backpack it does make it a bit harder to take the backpack off the child because you have to disconnect the feeding tube, pull the extension out of the slit and then reconnect the child to continue feeding. We ended up just leaving the zipper unzipped enough to pass the extension tubing through there that way we could just pull the whole pump and feeding bag right out of the backpack without having to disconnect anything. The only other issue we has was the "chest clip" was so low on ours (or because our son was so small it just ended up really low) was that the chest clip would get caught underneath our son's gj tube and pull or get caught (neither of which seemed too comfortable).
All in all a decent backpack and definitely worth it if your insurance will pay for it; otherwise, you may be able to just do what we've done since our backpack fell apart. If your insurance will only cover one backpack like ours then we went to Babys R Us and found a child backpack harness for around $20. The one we found is just big enough to stick the pump and feeding bag and has the added bonus of being a harness so your child can walk around while you hold the harness or the tether strap can be removed so it is just a backpack.
Read Best Reviews of EnteraLite Infinity Super-Mini Backpack for EnteraLite Feeding Pumps Here
we only use this backpack when to take our special needs grandson to one of his doctor visits. it seems to work very well for this purpose.Want EnteraLite Infinity Super-Mini Backpack for EnteraLite Feeding Pumps Discount?
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