As I mentioned before, when D came home from the hospital the 2nd time, he was reliant on IV nutrition through a broviac IV line. He had the line for about four months, and it was a whole new ballgame for us!


D showing off his broviac dressing, and K volunteering to help

When D first came home he was getting about 50% nutrition through his food (which he got as formula through his feeding tube), and the other 50% through the IV as we waited for his intestines to heal and be able to digest everything. He got IV fluids (basically gatorade – for electrolytes!) and IV lipids (which is literally liquid fat) for about 18 hours a day. We carried the IV bags and both pumps around in a backpack, along with the feeding tube stuff. That was a hefty bag! Over time his doctors decreased the IV amount and increased his food amount until he no longer needed any of the IV lines.

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D’s broviac lines (and feeding tube) coming out the neck of his pjs, going to his backpack. 

Life with a broviac comes with a lot of responsibility, and a lot of restrictions. The broviac line went straight to his heart, so it was very important that the line and the site around the line stayed impeccably clean, so he didn’t get an infection. We covered his line with a sterile dressing, which I would change once a week. The dressing couldn’t get wet (or it would fall off, and expose the line to germs), so he could only take sponge baths. We had a “broviac emergency kit” that came with us everywhere we went, in case the dressing got pulled off while we were out. I also scattered IV clamps around the house, so if the line broke we could clamp it before D bled out everywhere. Also, while the IV was running, you couldn’t disconnect it for clothing changes, so I got very good at putting on and taking off onesies from the bottom up!

For all of you who think that changing the diaper of a squirmy 6 month old is hard, let me introduce you to changing the broviac dressing! I had to:

  • Peel the old dressing off (D hated this)
  • Sanitize my hands, put on mask and sterile gloves, and keep hands sterile throughout the change
  • Scrub the skin surrounding the IV site and line with chloroprep for a few minutes (D hated this too)
  • Prep the skin with a sticky film so the dressing would stick, put a biopatch around the line to fight off infection
  • carefully place new stickers to hold the line in a swirl (which would give it slack if it got pulled)
  • carefully place a new clear dressing on top of everything
  • secure the line down to his shoulder to minimize jostling (and to keep away from poop-prone areas)
  • then finally – give up on being sterile and pick up the angry, crying baby and try to comfort him!

I always tried to do this when K would be otherwise occupied. This often meant that if there was someone else in the house, they were playing with K, so I was on my own to keep D as still and happy as possible. I did this by swaddling his arms down with a receiving blanket, and as he got older I actually taped the swaddle down with medical tape since he got too strong. If he broke out and started touching things (or yanking on the line!) it would be very dangerous, and I would have to start all over with cleaning. More than once I ended up doing everything one-handed while holding one of his arms down with my elbow. In addition to that fun, every day I would change the end cap of the line, which was also a sterile procedure but thankfully took much less time. Luckily for me we never had to deal with the line getting infected – thanks to all that scrubbing!

This post may sound like a lot of complaining, but I thank our lucky stars that broviacs exist, and that D was able to get all that IV nutrition safely at home while the rest of his body healed. For any parents that have found this post and will be needing to deal with a broviac – you can do it!


Just after the broviac removal surgery – a little grumpy from the anesthesia! His poor chest was red for weeks from all the stickers!