“Does The Bag Color Matter?” Handout (+ RD Guide)

by KNI

Table of Contents

    Does the bag color matter?

    Helping people on dialysis manage diabetes or estimate calories can be challenging, especially if you aren’t sure how to (or forget to!) account for the calories added by the dextrose in the peritoneal dialysate.  This handout aims to make this a simple process.  With an RD guide in addition to a simple visual tool for the patient, estimating the calories is easy!

    Using a helpful table adapted from the NKF pocket guide, you can  easily see the estimated absorption of dextrose from the different dialysate, and there are even examples to walk you through the calculations.

    The patient handout not only helps the patient visualize the additional dextrose absorbed by comparing the calories to candy bars, but also gives some tips for how to make it easier to use the less calorically dense bags more often.  Since this is a one sided handout, you can easily attach another handout that goes into more detail about limiting sodium, eating fresh unprocessed foods, fluid management or a game such as the Fluid Crossword puzzle or Super Salad Wordsearch in the KidneyRD library, allowing you to further personalize your nutrition education to what you feel like your patient needs.  This handout can also be used to help those who are working on weight loss for transplant and using more red or green bags has been a source of excess added sugar contributing to inflammation and possible weight gain.

    No need to recreate the wheel Save time by downloading this handout from the KidneyRD Library Not a member? Sign-up today!

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