Car seat challenge

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Dec 26, 2007

Car beds are a PITA to find. I think one company makes them.

littleneoRN, what weight and gestation do you send your kids home at and are they being tested in infant or convertable seats?

littleneoRN · Dec 26, 2007

All our kids go home in infant seats, usually the ones designated for 4-20 lbs. We don't have a weight or age limit for going home---they just need to be consistently taking their feedings orally, staying warm in a crib, spell-free (or having mild spells and going home on a monitor), and have any other issues stably resolved. Most kids go home at 35-37 weeks and 1800+ grams. I know we have some IUGR kids go home at like 1500 grams (or less), and technically there are very few corificeats appropriate for those kids.

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Dec 26, 2007

Ok, this is quasi-wellbaby nursery chiming in here.

We corificeat test all our The others passed on the second try.

We have our parents bring in the corificeat. We do the strapping in for the test; we teach how to strap them in later on. Most are fine, but it is scary some of the things that people have brought in. One grandma (mom had gone back to prison) brought in a bouncy seat and was shocked that we were NOT going to test her grandson in that thing, nor would we discharge him in it!!

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Dec 26, 2007

All our kids go home in infant seats, usually the ones designated for 4-20 lbs. We don't have a weight or age limit for going home---they just need to be consistently taking their feedings orally, staying warm in a crib, spell-free (or having mild spells and going home on a monitor), and have any other issues stably resolved. Most kids go home at 35-37 weeks and 1800+ grams. I know we have some IUGR kids go home at like 1500 grams (or less), and technically there are very few corificeats appropriate for those kids.

I'm just surprised by your fail rate. How many beds do you have on your unit?

nursecarlie06 · Dec 26, 2007

Hi Everybody,
Okay so I had my yearly review and my boss asked my what my plans for the unit next year and I couldn't think of anything so I said, "how about a corificeat challenge" because of course I had just read somebody talking about one on here. So now I need help. What all do you do for your corificeat challenges?
Do you have parents bring in their corificeats or do you have some in your units? What happens if they fail the challenge?
Thanks
Tina

For our corificeat trials, we always have the parents bring theirs in with the base of the corificeat because thats how they will be sitting in the car. If the parents don't have a corificeat or can't afford one, we provide one for them and usually ask for a $15 donation so we can keep supplying them.

For the most part, most of the babies pass on their corificeat trial, if they fail, we'll usually wait a day or two and try again and if they fail again, we test them in the corificeat with oxygen on and almost always they pass. Then they end up going home on oxygen. Because of our altitude here, many babies go home on oxygen.

For the carbeds, babies under 5 pounds go home in one. The same guideslines apply for the carbed. We supply the carbeds and again we ask for a $15 donation.

The bedside nurse will do the corificeat/carbed trial. We take vitals every 15 mins and make sure they have no brady/spells, no desats

We've sent many babies home in carbed because most of the time, the little twinky babies are nippling all their feeds, gaining weight consistently, stable on either RA or on a 1/4 of a liter of o2 or less, staying warm in an open crib, and not having any spells within the past 5 days.

~Carlie, LPN:lol2:

littleneoRN · Dec 27, 2007

Maybe I'm overstating our fail rate a bit. Most kids pass, but it's not at all unusual for kids to fail. We have 32 beds. We are a level 2 unit but our hospital has a large level 3, which feeds us many of our patients. I do think it's interesting that if the fit is ok, our car seat people don't say anything to parents if their child is 3 1/2 lbs and going home in a 4-20 lb corificeat.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Dec 28, 2007

We do all kids under 37 weeks for one hour. If they parents live several hours away we will do 2-3 hour ones and tell the parents that they have to stop for a break in that same time interval. I have only seen one kid go home in a car bed in over 20 years and this kiddo had surgery on his spine and couldn't sit up for 6 weeks, he had to be as flat as possible.

We have the parents bring in the corificeat with the base, we then have the parents adjust the straps, etc and tell them to read the instruction booklet (we have been advised by our legal department to not do anything with the corificeats and the parent can come back and say that the nurse adjusted the straps, etc and they were in an accident and baby got tossed out). We do the sleep studies between 8pm and 4am so that they get the most sleep time.

We have told parents that they corificeat is not appropriate for the baby and that they need to get a new one. Our social work has some to give out if parents need one. When it is time to go home, once again the parents have to put Junior in and strap in and then off they go!

TexasPediRN · Dec 28, 2007

One grandma (mom had gone back to prison) brought in a bouncy seat and was shocked that we were NOT going to test her grandson in that thing, nor would we discharge him in it!!

Ok, If that happened to me I dont know that I would have been able to contain myself. "Are you *$%*# kidding me??' is what would have come out of my mouth..

And then a phone call to social work..

How on earth does one even think a bouncy seat is the same as a corificeat??

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Dec 28, 2007

Oh yeah, SW was already involved at that point, cause Mom was in prison.

Big ado, that situation was.

TexasPediRN · Dec 28, 2007

Oh yeah, SW was already involved at that point, cause Mom was in prison.
Big ado, that situation was.

You get much credit for handling that situation :)

I probably would have gotten written up for being mean..

But still..how do you confuse the two? Oi vey...

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Dec 28, 2007

But still..how do you confuse the two? Oi vey...

Heck if I know..... :confused:

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Dec 29, 2007

How on earth does one even think a bouncy seat is the same as a corificeat??

Have you SEEN some of the parents we deal with ;>P ??

:lol2: