Vest question

[reillybug]

At my daughter's clinic visit on Friday, the Dr. mentioned that when Reilly gets a little bigger, she will get the vest. My question is, how much does the child have to weigh, or how big does she have to be before we can get it? I have read the past posts, but haven't seen anything indicating the size, and the website's don't say. Any help you can lend would be helpful.
Thanks!

 

[rose4cale]

That is a good question. At first they kept telling me when Cale turned 2 that he would be fitted for the vest. He turned 2 and they told me we had to wait until he was 3. Now he is 3 and we go back Dec 5 where I will insist on a trial for the vest. He doesn't let me do therpay on him too well right now. I spend most of the time holding him down. I am thinking though that 33 inch chest circumfance is the standard. Cale is past that, but they basically told me they were waiting for him to be a little more cooperative before we started the vest.

 

[anonymous]

Samantha received the vest before she turned two. She only weighed 24 lbs. I'm pretty sure the chest circumference minimum has to be 21 inches. Our vest is made by the Hill-Rom company. The website is www.thevest.com

Maria (Sami's mom)

 

[anonymous]

Cindy-
My daughter received her vest from Hill-rom when she was 14 months old and 19 pounds. My son was 18 months old and 27 pounds when he started using her vest. They will custom fit the vest to any child. I ran into a Hill-rom representative when my daughter was 13 months old. They told me they custom fit the vests. I asked her cf doctor and he gave us a prescription. I called the company and she had a vest a few weeks later.

Shelly,
I am not following Cale's doctor logic. Three years of age is WAY beyond when a lot of kids get the vest. I would say based on what other parents say that 18 months is the standard earliest age that clinic's start writing prescriptions. I said WAY beyond because a few weeks of struggling to get a child to sit still for treatments is a long time. The fact that they said you need to wait until he gets more cooperative is absolutely silly to me. I think one of the reasons to get a vest is because they are so uncooperative as toddlers. They have to be cooperative with the vest, they tend to like it once they get used to it and they find it hard to run away from it. From your son's doctor's logic, it sounds like the kids get a say-so in what treatments and medications they need to be on based on their behavior. If that was the case, my kids would not take inhaled meds. They really dislike them and are often uncooperative, but they HAVE to do them. I was at my wits end with Sophia and trying to do cpt on her when she was wiggling away from me the whole treatment. Once she got used to the treatments (about 4 days) the struggle was over. She (and her brother) I think actually enjoy the treatments. I have heard that manual cpt is better and it would make sense that it is, but if you can't get them to sit still what good is it? That was my theory. I do try to do manual sometimes and I will do it when they are congested. Hope you get one soon. It made life 100% better for my family.
Sharon, mom of Sophia, 4 and Jack, 2 both with cf
*you can see a picture of Jack in the vest (and Sophia) on the CFF website for Great Strides
<a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.cff.org/great_strides/
">http://www.cff.org/great_strides/
</a>

 

[reillybug]

Thanks for everyone's replies. Reilly weighs 24 pounds now, so it sounds like she should be ok to get fitted. I will ask the Dr. Another quick question - how often do you do vest treatments?
Thanks! I'm still new at this & learn more each day.

 

[anonymous]

Hi I'm new

I have a question about the vest, my daughter love's the therpay and it put's her asleep. She is now 4 and I would love to know more about the vest, she's using the acapella at the moment but she's not very interested in using it. I love giving her the therpay but as a divorced parent I sometimes worry she's not getting enough when she's with her dad. Any advice would be great.

 

[anonymous]

Hi Cindy, my daughter does hers for 30 mins a day - I think it is different for different people depending on their lung involvement. She got her vest just after her 2nd b-day (for some reason 2 seems to be a common time to get them) I think she was just under 26# then.

Good Luck!
kelli (mom of Sydney 2wcf)

 

[julie]

Here is the link to the HILLROM company <a target=new class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.thevest.com">www.thevest.com</a> Absolutely wonderful people. My husband is older and uses the vest, so I can't be much help with the child issue but is seems children would be more receptive to the vest than manual PT, they can still watch TV, attempt to read, color outside the lines (it's a little bouncey, Mark made me try it). It is also a great time saver, instead of me having to do 1 hour of manual chest PT EVERY am and pm for mark, he now does it on his own 20 minutes 2x a day.

Cindy, if your doc is still giving your gruff about the age, weight, height.... sicc the hilllrom company on them. Call or email, tell them you are interested and ask them to help you get it via your doctor, "please contact/send info to my childs CF doctor". They will do it in a heartbeat!

 

[anonymous]

Samantha does the vest 3X daily for 20 minutes. Sometimes we do 2X vest and 1X manual CPT. The vest has done wonders for her lungs. She has had a lot of lung involvement in her 2 1/2 short years of life, but since the vest, things have improved.


Maria (Sami's mom)

 

[trigueros79]

What the docs and nurses told me they did not want to give vest to children less then three because of babyshaking syndrome...
My daughter turned 4 in June and she does ok, she complains her stomach hurts, I check the pressure, thats how much it squeezes and adjust the speed. Mine is from Hill-rom too... they even provide a home visit to show how its done when you are perscribed to get it.

 

[lflatford]

Avery had just turned two when she got her Vest. I think she was around 27lbs and 30inches long. I am not sure how they judged it, but I do remember they told us she was just barely big enough.

 

[rose4cale]

I decided that I am not going to be told no at his next visit. (Dec 5th) We will leave with a prescription for the vest. And that is that!

<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">

 

[julie]

Good for you Shelly, sometimes you need to be like that.

 

[rose4cale]

I've just been in that kind of mood lately Julie! If I would have listened to Dr's in the first place, I would still be wondering what was wrong with him. I am not going to let them walk on us now!

 

[HD]

My 5 year old just got the vest. He was compliant with manual CPt mainly becasue we did it after he fell asleep from the age of 6 months! He didn't tolerate it awake until he was 4. We mainily went with the vest becasue he started having mucus plugs and also for time issuess, especially in the morning trying to get he and his sister ready for school

 

[reillybug]

Reilly had to go in to be seen earlier this week (sick visit), so I asked about the vest. They said they would call the company (Hill Romm) and have them contact me about setting up a trial. They said we could try it for a month to see how it goes.

 

[rose4cale]

That's good news Cindy. Let us know how it goes. Monday is our appt...quarterly visit. Cale got past his cold, finally, so I am hoping he doesn't culture anything.

 

[reillybug]

I will. Hopefully I will hear from the company sooner, rather than later. Good luck at Cale's visit on Monday. I'll keep you in my thoughts & prayers! Let us know how it goes.

 

[rose4cale]

Isn't it funny how one little appt takes your WHOLE day?!!! We had our appt, which is an hour drive. (We left at 8:30 this morning) We got there early, thankfully because we drove around the parking ramp for 30 minutes looking for one stinkin parking spot. When I couldn't find one, I pulled up to the gate and they were going to charge me for the 30 minutes I spent on the ramp. I must have had looks that could kill, because he lifted the gate for me. We parked at a different ramp and walked in the minus 4 degree weather to the hospital. Waited until after 11:30 before we saw the Dr. Then had labs done, which took a total of one lab tech and 4 nurses plus me to hold Cale down so they could take blood. After 7 tries, they finally got enough blood. They asked if the physical therapist had contacted us yet about the vest...I said no, but I am not leaving without the prescription for one. Amazing how fast they got that done to get us out of there!!

Soooooooo....hopefully Hill Rom will be contacting us soon!<img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif" border="0">

Oh yeah, we didn't get home until 3:30...what a day!!

 

[reillybug]

Shelly,
What a tough day. At least it is over (for this time!) and hopefully next time will be better. Congrats on getting the Rx for Cales vest! I, too am waiting for Hill Romm to contact me. The Dr. called me from Reilly's culture last Tues., and she has strep throat! So, the antibiotic they gave her that day should cover it.
Keep me posted on Cale. Hope today is better!