?????'s about weaning

[lil' G's mom]

G has been home for 6 weeks now, and doing great..... He came home on 1/2 liter o2, rate of 6, pressure support of 18, pressure control of 22, and peep of 6...
He has completely weaned off of o2, and doing good with that, and we just weaned him down to a peep of 4....
My question's are:
How were your kids weaned off of vent?
How fast?
Did you do it at home?
When did you start taking them off the vent?
Thanks any input is appreciated.

[FightingForFaith]

I think a lot of it has to do with why the child is vented in the first place. In the past people were very fast to wean Faith- yes she could do it but she wasn't growing, wasn't developing, and wasn't even smiling! The concept of using the vent for rehabilitation was so new to me- until I saw first hand how it helped Faith. She could probably be weaned right now, but once again she wouldn't be developing as well as she is now. I like our pulmonary docs' stance..his mantra is "when they are ready...they are ready..." I know that sounds vague but it's true- the goal isn't getting off the vent for the sake of getting off it (very different from what we experienced in the NICU!) but to use it so these babies (who have to work so hard at everything else) can put all of their energy into growing and thriving.

With that being said I don't know the history of your son and why he is vented- so he might be ready! I think the next step would be CPAP (just turning the rate to 0) he will still receive the peep, but all of the breathing would be on his own.

Actually Faith starting trialing this yesterday. (few hours at a time...) after talking to the rehab team they wanted to give it a try- and yes this was done over the phone. She will probably stay on CPAP (and a rate of 8 at night) for another year.

I hope that helped. Good luck!
Jen

PS: I don't blame ya for wanting to get rid of the stupid thing! So if you feel it's time, speak up!

[drct1245]

I agree w/ Jen... in our case Ayden was on a vent b/c of his lungs - no structure. The next thing is CPAP. The signs that lil G is ready, may not be completely obvious... ours was that Ayden wasn't sleeping. He has done this through out the weening off the rate to CPAP and then through weening off the vent too. It only took us 2 sleepless months to figure out that we were weening him too slow!! Then Ayden actually decided that he was going to ween himself from a rate to CPAP in 4 nights! Once he found out about the CPAP, he didn't want something telling HIM to breath. haha

So glad that you have been able to get him off the O2 - I wish we could have done that!!!

How fast - from a rate to CPAP, during the day took probably 2-3 months; nights like I said took 4 days. Then from the vent to off the vent during the day took about 5-6months and nights took another 3-4 months. All of which was done at home. Our pulm gave us some guidance, but for the most part, said to just go for it at the rate Ayden wanted to. We did go into the office and try the initial trial at the office. He started to come off the vent at about 16mo of age.

wishing you the best of luck!!