Home oxygen care plan
Weaning Home Oxygen Plan
Once your baby is home, your community nurse will arrange a sleep study. This usually happens within 2 weeks post discharge. You will be asked to keep the oxygen saturation monitor on for 12 hours overnight. Ensure the monitor is kept on continuously and plugged into the mains.
- The data is recorded, downloaded, and reviewed by the Community nurse and Paediatrician.
- A plan will be decided based on the results of the study.
- If the sleep study results are satisfactory, your baby is growing well and shows no signs of illness, you may be advised to reduce the oxygen dose.
- This process is repeated until the oxygen requirement is minimal, usually 0.01-0.02LPM.
During periods of illness and winter months, your baby’s oxygen requirement may increase and the oxygen weaning process delayed.
Once the oxygen requirement is minimal and a satisfactory sleep study has been obtained, you will be asked to withdraw the oxygen for 12 hours during the day for 1-2 weeks.
After 1-2 weeks, the sleep study will be repeated and, if satisfactory, the oxygen can be withdrawn throughout the night whilst a sleep study is recorded.
If the sleep study is satisfactory, the oxygen can be stopped and the sleep study repeated in 1-2 weeks.
Once the oxygen has stopped, the oxygen company will be instructed to remove the cylinders and saturation monitor.
You must inform the Disability Living Allowance, car and home insurance providers.
Monitoring Oxygen Saturation Levels
Oxygen saturations should be monitored at home post discharge for an hour during sleeping, feeding and activity for the first day.
After this time, oxygen saturation monitoring is required during community nurse visits or if you try a new activity with your baby, for example, a bouncy chair or you are concerned about your baby.
What to do if you are concerned about your baby
Check oxygen saturations more frequently if you are concerned about your baby, for example they have a cold , cough, change of breathing pattern, not feeding as usual, quiet or more sleepy than usual
If oxygen saturations are less than 93% and your baby looks well and is comfortable, check the following:
- position – ensure your baby’s head is in a neutral position (chin not on chest or head tipped back)
- oxygen probe is secure
- nasal prongs are not blocked
- oxygen tubing is not kinked
- oxygen tubing is securely attached to oxygen cylinder
- oxygen cylinder is turned on and functioning correctly
If your baby’s oxygen saturation level remains less than 93%:
Seek advice from your community nursing team or open access if out of hours as your baby will need to be reviewed by a healthcare professional the same day.
and
Gradually increase the oxygen dose until your baby’s oxygen saturations are 93% or above and slowly try to wean back to the usual amount of oxygen over 15- 30 minutes.
If you are able to get back to the usual amount of oxygen, with oxygen saturations maintaining within the normal range (93% and above), continue to check oxygen saturation levels more frequently.
If oxygen saturations are less than 89%:
Your baby’s colour has changed (blue/grey/pale) particularly at the lips or breathing pattern has changed (rapid or shallow), call 999 and increase oxygen to the maximum level whilst you wait for the paramedics to arrive.
If your baby is not breathing:
Call 999 and commence basic life support
Please download the full information leaflet from this page for:
- A sleep study form to fill in
- A list of useful contact numbers
- Further sources of information