Oxygen delivery for 2-yr-old at night?

[Guest guest]

I need ideas and thought you guys might have some. We have an oxygen

separator for Sheldon to use at night since his sleep apnea has been

bad. However, he is scared of the cannula and won't wear it. His

tactile sense is very sensitive lately, I know that's part of the

problem. My first question is, do you think he's getting enough

oxygen to help him if it's near his nose and mouth instead of in his

nose? It seems to me like it must still help some. Second, how do I

keep it there? Thought of putting it around his neck but that seems

dangerous. Tried taping it to his shirt but don't know what position

to tape it in. Thought of taping it to his chin and tried that while

he was asleep last night but it gagged him. He gags if I try to put

it near his nose too. Seems like we might be able to get him used

having it taped on his chin or clothes. Do you guys have any ideas?

What have you done?

Thanks.

--

----------

Stacey Fleming

flemings@...

[Guest guest]

> I need ideas and thought you guys might have some. We have an oxygen

> separator for Sheldon to use at night since his sleep apnea has been

> bad.

Our DD also uses oxygen at night at times. If Sheldon has sleep apnea, does

he have some type of breathing support (cPAP or biPAP)? Oxygen won't do

any good if one is not breathing. First of all, I would ask for a continuous

pulse

oximeter at night if you don't have one. You can get these with a script and

have insurance pay for one (hopefully) or you can get them on eBay. If you

use one of these, you can tell if the oxygen is helping.

Our daughter finds the prongs on the nasal cannula uncomfortable We cut

them off. We also use a stiffer brand of tubing. We like Salter. We don't tape

the cannula to anything as the tape can break down the skin. Just wrap the

tubing behind the ears and use the little tightener thingie under the chin. It

should stay on without problems. We also always use humidity. It is more

comfortable that way.

[Guest guest]

Stacey,

Don't know if this is practical for your situation, but when our girls

were little, we used an oxygen tent on each of their cribs. There was a

fan that blew moisturized room air and the oxygen in. We rented the set

up from a home health agency. This worked great for us because almost the

only time the girls needed oxygen was when they were asleep. (If they did

need it when they were awake--like when they had pneumonia--we shortened

the prongs on cannulas and taped the cannulas to their faces). Also,

they didn't have much mobility, so they didn't move around enough to mess

with the plastic tents.

BTW, we did have problems with the tape on their faces causing redness,

as someone else mentioned, but it was the only way to keep the oxygen on

them during the day. We finally hit on putting a layer of something

putty-like on their cheeks (it's been too long to remember, but I want to

say maybe it was called stoma adhesive), then taping to that instead of

their bare skin.

-- Mom to:

Emilie (18), mito--complex IV, cp, ld

Kaitlin (18), cp, asthma, a few autonomic symptoms

Ian (22) migraines

....and wife to Tim, who has a heart of gold

[Guest guest]

--Hi Stacey

is almost 2 and uses O2 at night. Having the cannula near

her nose or mouth does nothing to help her sats stay up. We cut the

prongs off the cannula and usually she does well with it that way.

If she is desatting too much we have to use a cannula with prongs.

How do his sats run? What did the sleep study say?

We wait for to fall saleep and then we hook her up. I wish

she could fall asleep with the cannula on but no such luck. Her sats

are alrady pretty low and she's not too easily aroused by the time we

get in and mess with her.

What kind of O2 setup do you have? Is it liquid, compressed gas, or

a concentrator? If you're not worried about running low then you

could ask for a scoop mask. It's like a flexible tent that goes over

the lower half of the face but doesn't actually touch it that much.

It takes a high liter flow though. You could also ask for the thick

tubing that they use for a vent and do blowby, I suppose.

I absolutely recommend a pulse Ox meter. I fought against it for so

long and wish I hadn't . I was resistant to having another piece of

equipment in the house and I realize now that I was just being

stubborn. It's really helped me sleep because I know when she's

taken the O2 off and I can just get up and put it on again. It also

lets us know when she's having a seizure faster than the apnea

monitor ever did.

Good luck!

Heidi, 's Mom

www.caringbridge.org/ma/heather

- In Mito , Stacey Fleming wrote:

> I need ideas and thought you guys might have some. We have an

oxygen

> separator for Sheldon to use at night since his sleep apnea has

been

> bad. However, he is scared of the cannula and won't wear it. His

> tactile sense is very sensitive lately, I know that's part of the

> problem. My first question is, do you think he's getting enough

> oxygen to help him if it's near his nose and mouth instead of in

his

> nose? It seems to me like it must still help some. Second, how do I

> keep it there? Thought of putting it around his neck but that seems

> dangerous. Tried taping it to his shirt but don't know what

position

> to tape it in. Thought of taping it to his chin and tried that

while

> he was asleep last night but it gagged him. He gags if I try to put

> it near his nose too. Seems like we might be able to get him used

> having it taped on his chin or clothes. Do you guys have any ideas?

> What have you done?

>

> Thanks.

> --

> ----------

> Stacey Fleming

> flemings@g...

[Guest guest]

> BTW, we did have problems with the tape on their faces causing redness,

> as someone else mentioned, but it was the only way to keep the oxygen on

> them during the day. We finally hit on putting a layer of something

> putty-like on their cheeks (it's been too long to remember, but I want to

> say maybe it was called stoma adhesive), then taping to that instead of

> their bare skin.

We used stoma adhesive when was an infant. It also caused skin

breakdown. At night, when a child is asleep, you should not have too much

problem with keeping the cannula on. You could try waiting until he is asleep

and then putting the tubing on. You could also try running the tubing through

a nebulizer mask. Our found that scary as an infant but after we forced

the issue with her (she HAD to have treatments to stay alive), she learned to

like treatments and the mask. You could run the oxygen tubing into the

bottom of a mask (where the air tubing for the compressor goes).

[Guest guest]

Thanks to everyone for the ideas. I was able to put the cannula

on after he was asleep last night (with the prongs cut off) and it

stayed on for a while at least. Need to see if we can get a meter. We

do have a concentrator. His SATs during the overnight study only went

down to around 85 I think but I know it's worse other times, his sleep

apnea is worse when he's more tired so we wanted to have the oxygen

available for times when he really needs it. However, it would be very

good for him I'm sure if he could have it on all night at least until

his tonsillectomy next month. We know recovery from the surgery will

be hard but he has such trouble breathing at night (192 arousals the

night of the sleep study) that we want to do whatever we can to help

him breath.

--Hi Stacey

is almost 2 and uses O2 at night. Having the cannula

near

her nose or mouth does nothing to help her sats stay up. We cut

the

prongs off the cannula and usually she does well with it that

way.

If she is desatting too much we have to use a cannula with prongs.

How do his sats run? What did the sleep study say?

We wait for to fall saleep and then we hook her up. I

wish

she could fall asleep with the cannula on but no such luck. Her

sats

are alrady pretty low and she's not too easily aroused by the time

we

get in and mess with her.

What kind of O2 setup do you have? Is it liquid, compressed gas,

or

a concentrator? If you're not worried about running low then

you

could ask for a scoop mask. It's like a flexible tent that goes

over

the lower half of the face but doesn't actually touch it that

much.

It takes a high liter flow though. You could also ask for the

thick

tubing that they use for a vent and do blowby, I suppose.

I absolutely recommend a pulse Ox meter. I fought against it for

so

long and wish I hadn't . I was resistant to having another piece

of

equipment in the house and I realize now that I was just being

stubborn. It's really helped me sleep because I know when

she's

taken the O2 off and I can just get up and put it on again. It

also

lets us know when she's having a seizure faster than the apnea

monitor ever did.

Good luck!

Heidi, 's Mom

www.caringbridge.org/ma/heather

- In Mito , Stacey Fleming <flemings@g...>

wrote:

> I need ideas and thought you guys might have some. We have an

oxygen

> separator for Sheldon to use at night since his sleep apnea

has

been

> bad. However, he is scared of the cannula and won't wear it.

His

> tactile sense is very sensitive lately, I know that's part of

the

> problem. My first question is, do you think he's getting

enough

> oxygen to help him if it's near his nose and mouth instead of

in

his

> nose? It seems to me like it must still help some. Second, how do

I

> keep it there? Thought of putting it around his neck but that

seems

> dangerous. Tried taping it to his shirt but don't know what

position

> to tape it in. Thought of taping it to his chin and tried

that

while

> he was asleep last night but it gagged him. He gags if I try to

put

> it near his nose too. Seems like we might be able to get him

used

> having it taped on his chin or clothes. Do you guys have any

ideas?

> What have you

done?

>

> Thanks.

> --

> ----------

> Stacey Fleming

> flemings@g...

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mito-owner with any problems or

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