Thursday, 21 June 2007
Older Childrens' Issues
Does anyone have any comments to make on helping an older child to learn how to become more independant with their own trachy care? Obviously all children can handle different things at different times, but if any parents have ideas to share on how they taught their child self-suction and how to change their own tube etc (always with a trained carer nearby) it would be really useful to other parents approaching that stage. We know that some parents encourage their child to take responsibility for as much of their trachy care as is safe right from an early age, others prefer to keep the care their own responsibility (there may of course be developmental or physical issues which would determine what happens). Comments from parents with a child approaching or at Secondary school would be particularly helpful.
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Sam cannot do any of his own trachy care yet, he is 4, and he is on the autism spectrum, so is behind many of his peers - he can't dress himself either.
However, James, Sam's 10 year old brother has helped me with tape changes and learnt how to suction to get himself a badge in the cubs! He will happily suction Sam whenever it is needed, though I still like to supervise if he is doing it. I popped upstairs once and came down to find James with a rather large length of catheter about to suction Sam (who was refusing to keep still!), so I have put a length of tape onto the side of the suction machine the length of the tube so he can measure the catheter before suctioning.
Funny though - Sam has a cold this week and needs loads of suction - and James has decided to stay glued to the tv.
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