Ann’s son was diagnosed with a lung disease called Neuroendocrine Hyperplasia of Infancy (NEHI) at 6 months of age. This disease requires him to be on oxygen at night. She was given two options for home delivery: a nasal cannula or a mask. (Oxygen tents are not safe for in-home use for various reasons.) When she brought him home and tried the cannula, he promptly pulled it off his face. They tried tape and Tendergrips and nothing would keep the cannula on when he grabbed it. So, the pulmonologist told her to place her son’s arms in special splints and tape the nasal cannula to his face and said “he would get used to it”.
Bedtime became a nightmare of wrestling, crying, and screaming until he would fall asleep from exhaustion. This continued until he was a little more than 1 year old, when he figured out how to remove the Velcro straps on the splints. At that point, his desperate parents turned up the oxygen concentrator and taped the oxygen tubing to a teddy bear and placed it near his face on a “blow-by system”. Then they would take shifts staying up and moving the teddy bear every time he would turn over. We Can Do Better…
DesignWise Medical’s response…