[MotherWhimsey]

Does any one's kid here use a BiPap at night? Linden is starting next month and I would like to know the best way to get him used to it so he'll cooperate. If he's sick enough in the hospital he'll deal with it, but well I have no idea how he'll do. We're also going to switch to a GJ, but hopefully that change won't take any getting used to for him. I'm mainly just worried that he'll flip about the BiPap. We're going inpatient to get his settings correct so I want to familiarize him with it before then (I can get a mask, but we won't have the whole shebang till we get our order for the settings). Any tips or ideas? We use a cough assist already and while he'll deal with it, he most certainly doesn't like it and we have high flow masks, but they're different. But he is used to masks of varying kind.

 

[starlein26]

I can't offer advice but I really want to send you big hugs. I've been reading your blog...

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[pixiekisses]

Hmm, hard question, we've only used cpap at night at home, but then she's had so much troubble breathing that she wont protest.
But it might be ok seeing as he is used to masks. My sweet is used to masks and the "wind" of oxygen in her nose often, so it's usually ok for her, and it's been like that since he was a baby, so it's hard to say how it would be to introduce it now.
How much can you prepare him verbally by telling him about it?

 

[MotherWhimsey]

He's very smart and understands a lot. The problem is that he's also two. lol.

I think I'm going to call child life at that hospital and ask about bringing him in to mess around with it some. This hospital is our local children's hospital, not the good one, so I don't know how much child life does. I've only seen them pass out paper and crayons.

It really might help him so much that he doesn't mind. He has NEVER messed with his o2 and will freak if I take it off to change cannulas. He's pretty good at adapting to equipment. I just worry that I'll screw it up for the first bit and then he'll just hate it because of that. The mask for cpap is different than bipap. The only one's I've seen for bipap only go over the nose, not the mouth too. There may be different kinds, I just need to research it all. I need to find a good brand of bipap too, I don't really know anything about them.

 

[pixiekisses]

Yeah, I saw he was so young, hehe.
But it's probably good to let him play with it and get used to it that way, maybe putting it on a doll etc.
He should be able to, the hospital needs to understand how important it is to get him to be ok with it.

And yeah, find the right mask, that will be the most comfortable for him.