Kangaroo care

prmenrs, RN · Jun 2, 2003

Unfortunately, having a baby in a NICU is a roller-coaster ride. Babies can get septic @ any time, up to and including the day of discharge. Once the baby is again stable, and meets the criteria in your unit for Kangaroo Care, you can again offer it to the parents. Even if they don't want to do that, they can still hold the baby.

I'd expect them to be nervous, but you can remind them that it's not their fault, just like the fact that the baby is in the NICU in the 1st place isn't their fault. If they just happen to come in when YOU are holding the baby, they will feel more comfortable--don't forget-you are modeling behavior for them.

Maybe they can start out just holding, and progress to Kangaroo Care?

iceNICUnurse · Jun 3, 2003

We do kangaroo care if the baby is not intubated and no umbilical lines.

We dont have a written policy but the baby has to be fairly stable and not on too much oxygen.

We dont have any weight limits.

KRVRN, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2003

Man, we do Kangaroo with just about evey type of line/situation. We can K-care with UAC/UVC's, PALs, intubated, NCPAP, PIV, NC, frequent A/B's, temp instability, pressor drips, chest tubes, etc, etc. We need an order to K-care with arterial lines but that's never a problem. Hood O2 babies usually don't K-care, but we could if we wanted to for a brief time with BBO2. Hifi and Oscillators don't K-care. It's just about always nurses' discretion.

We've had fresh 23 weekers with mulitple lines K-care because we thought the baby was going to die within a few days. Took a few nurses to transfer the baby over but she tolerated it.

nicudaynurse · Jun 3, 2003

Kangarooing with a chest tube? Wow!! Our doc's usually want arterial lines out, but intubated babies were ok as long as they were somewhat stable.

KRVRN, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2003

I've seen babies breastfeed with chest tubes!