Trach Cap?

[Jodi (Sydney's Mom)]

I have heard from several of you about a thing called a trach cap. Â*Sydney is almost 22 months old and has had her trach since 5 weeks and I am just now learning about a trach cap. Â*I can see and hear Sydney breathing thru her mouth around her trach all the time and I am wondering where I could get my hands on a cap to try it for a while. Â*She does great now with her passe muir valve and I can leave it on her all day while she's awake, so I thought maybe she'd be able to use the cap. Â*Is there a website where I could order one for her, or should I just ask my doctor about it the next time I am there? Â*The problem with my doctor is that he didn't even seem anxious to give her the PMV, so I am not sure he'd even consider a cap. Â*Any ideas welcome...thanks for letting me ramble!

[Lily's Mom]

Jodi,
I just asked the staff at the pulmonologist's office for a cap for Lily's trach, like it was no big deal and she's always had one. They just basically went and got one for me. (I was a very bad person and did not ask her doctor first, but I'm obnoxious that way) If you can't get one, though, no big deal. Just cover the end of the trach with your finger to see how she does with it capped. It was weird to hear Lily *inhale* through her mouth for the first time in 9 months! Before I got the cap I even tried putting a piece of cloth tape over the end of the trach; that worked pretty well.
Good luck!
Erica (Lily's Mom)

[p's mom]

Jodi
From what we've learned some ENT or Pulmonologists don't believe in capping. Ours for example doesn't. If you think about it capping a trach and then the kids trying to breath around the capped trach tube isn't a whole lot of room to breath. Our doc's have said if a child can do it it's great but just because a child can't tolerate being capped doesn't mean they aren't ready for decannulation. They've told us the strongest thing we can do to help Parker is just to use the PMV it promotes breathing so much like you would with out the trach.
Hope this helps.
Take Care
P's MOM
Cory
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[gfischer01]

Our Doc said the same thing. They would rather downsize the Trach every week forcing more air up the airway. If all went well in a month or 2 then remove alltogether. I was told that children younger the 3 should not be capped.

[christyw]

Like others said, just cover the trach with your finger for a bit, and you should know pretty quickly whether the child can breathe ok. You could listen with a stethescope to see how good or how tight/bad she sounds...and you could place her on a pulse ox to see the oxygenation. This is what our ENT did, and then sent us home with a cap. Â*It could be potentially dangerous and she would need to be monitored very closely in my opinion.

If you can cap - I have some colored trach caps in various colors...so cute. I can send them to you.

We received our original cap from the ENTs office. Another thing I've heard of on this board is leaving the obturator in the trach for a bit instead of pulling it out...just to see if she can handle the trach being totally plugged.

Christy