making ventilator portable for toddler

[lynn]

Hello, I have a very active 2 year old son who is currently cruising along furniture, and pushing walking toys. Joseph gets very frustrated however because he is "tied" to his ventilator. Has anyone adapted any kind of walking toy or other item to attach the ventilator - for toddler to push? I was thinking maybe some type of childs shopping cart? push activity walking toy? -- Joseph is VERY small for his age, he is 27" tall, and weighs 16lbs so whatever I try has to be short and light. - he has a radio flyer red wagon/walker.. that his vent fits into , but the problem with it is the wheels are fixed and dont swivel, so he gets stuck.. and can only go in a straight line, which turns into a terrible two tantrum... he is soo frustrated because he cant move like he wants. He has been disconnecting and (sprinting)on his own.( he gets mad and pulls the vent off and takes off I allow him 10mins or so) but according to pulmo he shouldn't be off vent at all. I just want him to be able to move as much as possible, and dont want him to get so aggravated he gives up. :confused:

[kirafaesmom]

Is there any way that you could get better wheels at the hardware store and switch them out on your wagon/walker? We recently bought a luggage on wheels for Kira's portable battery and warm mist machine. It has wheels that turn 360 degrees.....

[TommysDad]

I personally still think the vent stand we got from our DME does the best trick, but I have to push it around:rolleyes: We had a family member who's a PT suggest a Radio Flyer wagon/walker. We bought it. The wheels have some resistance and don't just give way to the weight of a toddler learning to walk. Plus the added weight of the vent, make it really nice to keep grounded while the toddler is still learning to walk. The vent fit perfectly in the wagon part. It went really nice in straight lines, but in order to turn corners, us adults were hunched over a lot to help Tommy make the turns. We used this primarly on tile and hardwood floors. The carpet added more resistance naturally. It wasn't long before Tommy out grew his walker/wagon. So, to spend like $80 on something when we still were pushing it around for him seemed like a waste of money to me, but I'm the stay at home mommy who thinks practically. Daddy on the other hand thought it was just great, and he is still looking for something else to spend more money on and more time to modify yet another toy that Tommy can push around by himself other then the vent stand. Boy am I glad he's got a job and money coming in.

Now we are finding out Tommy can really tolerate being off his vent more and more. Which makes me think spending more money on modified vent stroller/toy portablitiy is just even more a waste of money, time and energy!

We have seen some cute baby doll strollers that have been modified for the vent. I think if the front wheels on the baby doll strollers pivot and turn, it would help a lot with turning corners. Tom's almost got me sold on that idea:D

~Maggie

[Alethia]

We're a very cheap family, so first we took a 3 tiered, wire vegetable rack on castors. My dad cut some of the wires of the bottom basket so he could flatten it out, then removed the middle shelf so you coudl get the vent in and out. The vent fit onto it a bit tightly, but the whole contraption wheeled around easily for Angus and he could put stuff into the top shelf. Unfortunately it didn't last very long because it kind of needed the middle shelf for stability.

What we have now is a piece of wood cut to the size of the vent when it's laying down. We stuck a piece of non-slip matting onto it (I used the kids' white glue, and I got the matting from a basic hardware shop). We screwed furniture castors (from the same hardware shop) to the base of the piece of wood, and my dad made a slanted handle from a piece of dowel rod and two slats.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/Alethia99/IMG_2131.jpg http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f198/Alethia99/IMG_2133.jpg

We used to have just the piece of wood on castors, and he managed fairly well, but this is better. Here he is with it the old way:

http://ellisvancreveld.co.uk/evc/Anguspullingvent.wmv

When he's just on batteries and the oxygen cable doesn't get under the wheels, he's pretty good with this thing. We haven't managed to find wheels or castors that work brilliantly though. It's a tough problem. The vegetable rack was really good when it was first made and he found it the easiest to steer. I reckon if someone worked on stabilising it and increasing the size of the bottom shelf, then they'd get a pretty good vent trolley for an independent kid.

[lynn]

I love the wooden push trolley!! Thank you sooo much for including the pictures, they explain much better for my husband who is very handy, but works better from pictures than directions. I have tried the medical stand that came with the vent, but it weighs 65 lbs on its own, and is 4ft tall, (and its wheels kind of do what they want - never work together)so it is hard for an adult to handle, yet alone a toddler. I also like the idea of the handle on this one can be adjusted as Joseph grows- at home we have hardwood floors, and we found the easiest thing is to lay the vent on the floor and push with our foot as he wants to move and try to investigate. I will get dad working on this right away... my physical therapist will be so happy.. she has been looking for "vent wheels" also.

[Alex's mom]

Kate, I don't know if I've ever seen a pic of that push cart. That's really cool!