I am not asking for medical advice. I am a peds nurse with 34yrs experience, but this has me stumped--
My youngest DS15 is profoundly mentally handicapped, like a 1yo. He walks, but has no self-help skills and NO sense of danger. Lately he has taken a few falls--he is very off-balance due to seizure meds and low muscle tone. He has suffered a few head injuries and some broken bones falling down the stairs, so we accompany him now and we have put a gate over the basement stairs so he can't go down there, even if he lurched into the gate. We are also addressing the balance & walking issues in PT. We have a CNA who comes in every evening to feed & play with DS and bathe him, things that are harder for us. The CNA is with DS constantly, so DS never falls when the CNA is here.
Sometimes DS falls out of bed with a seizure. Putting bed rails on the bed backfired--in his confusion during a seizure he tries to escape and hit his head hard enough to cause a concussion. It has been suggested to us by authorities that we invest in door alarms or bed alarms (gotta love CPS--NOT) We are not too keen on door alarms because he opens and closes doors for entertainment but we might want to look into the bed alarms depending on how they work.
How loud are the alarms? Describe how the alarm goes off--is it short or is it loud? Once it is tripped, is it constant? I have no problem with having an alarm, but I don't want some ear-splitting noise that's going to wake everyone in the house. What I need is something that goes off briefly, just enough to get our attention.
but we might want to look into the bed alarms depending on how they work.