Quad Shot Academy Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Do they sell any sort of home pulse ox machine for infants? I see lots of finger ones on Amazon that say for adult or pediatric use, but I am not sure how young they can be used. Anyone have experience? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wapiti Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 I have used "finger" pulse oximeters on toddlers with fat fingers (also the big toe) - with a very high degree of difficulty (they will not sit still, unless they are asleep). For an infant though, you'd need a pulse oximeter that attaches to the wire with the little band-aid wrap-around part with the red light (make sense?). These are usually more expensive devices. In some states, you need a prescription to buy such a device, I believe. If you really want one at home, I'd ask your ped. We had an infant pulse ox at home temporarily, when one of my kids came home on oxygen from a hospital stay. It was rented from the company who delivered the oxygen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 (edited) I think hospitals use a pediatric one and just wrap it around the baby's big toe. (ETA: I mean the kind Wapati described, with the band-aid looking wrap that just winds around the toe.) Here's a photo of Corbin at 2 1/2 weeks that I already had online. Edited February 6, 2011 by ondreeuh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Virg Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 Yes you have to order a special one and it is the band aid looking one. My son has severe asthma and a hyper reactive immune system, we have a pulse oximeter for him but it wouldn't measure the O2 saturation of my daycare infant, and he is 4 months old. I just tried it for the fun of it one day to see if it would work. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dansamy Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 (edited) I call it my et light. You can use the adult/pedi one on a bigger baby, but the band-aid light is the best. Edited February 6, 2011 by dansamy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad Shot Academy Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 Thanks everyone. Looks like we will need to rent something if need be. I will be seeing the ped. later this week and seeing if we need to rent one or follow up with an ENT. That picture of Corbin broke my heart! He looks so big for being 2 weeks old! How much did he weigh at birth? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 He weighed almost 9 lbs (scale was broken so he didn't get a real weight until the next day). Post-surgery he was very swollen. He had closed-heart surgery through his side to take out a narrow section of his aorta. He's had two open-heart surgeries since then and it doesn't get any easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad Shot Academy Posted February 6, 2011 Author Share Posted February 6, 2011 He weighed almost 9 lbs (scale was broken so he didn't get a real weight until the next day). Post-surgery he was very swollen. He had closed-heart surgery through his side to take out a narrow section of his aorta. He's had two open-heart surgeries since then and it doesn't get any easier. I am so sorry. :grouphug: I had one that was hooked up to most of that stuff, but she was only 7 lbs and looked so much smaller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
courtney.byrum Posted February 6, 2011 Share Posted February 6, 2011 I am so sorry. :grouphug: I had one that was hooked up to most of that stuff, but she was only 7 lbs and looked so much smaller. I had one that was 3 lbs - so even your 7 lb one would have seemed huge. Even with the little bandaid ones count on them coming off fairly regularly as infants tend to kick their feet a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Ditto what they all said. It can sometimes take a LOT of persuading to get a doc to write for an infant. And, even if you can get a Rx written, getting your insurance to cover it generally requires a specific diagnosis. Our insurance wouldn't pay for one even though all of the docs on the med team agreed our child needed one. My toddler (2.5) can sometimes get a reading on our insert-the-fingertip kind, but more often than not, we still can't get a good reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brehon Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Little late, but I thought I'd just throw this out and you can do with it what you please...:) I use the "band-aid" probes on almost all my pedi patients with varying degrees of success. I'm not sure why you want your dc's O2 saturation, but here are a few things to keep in mind. 1. Extremity temp can (& probably will) affect the reading: cold fingers or toes can give a lower reading 2. Most pulse oximeters are accurate to +/- 15 points. So, take the reading w/a grain of salt if it is low, but your dc seems to be breathing ok. 3. The pulse oximeter's readings trend over minutes. IOW any given reading will be representative of the past 2-5 minutes. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you realize that someone can stop breathing & the SpO2 reading will still read in the, say, 90's (or whatever the last reading was). 4. One of the best & instantaneous bits of information on how well (or not) someone is breathing/ventilating is end-tidal CO2. Both capnometry (the number) & capnography (the waveform) are highly accurate. Given that unfortunately most ERs, let alone doctors' offices, don't have this capability I doubt you'd be able to get a script. Good luck and I hope your dc is OK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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