Ok, so Isaac had a mild case of jaundice that set in on day 3. It was bad enough that the hospital wanted to send us home with a “billi blanket” which is a sort of blue light that you wrap around the baby to break down the jaundice. Thats all well and good, and we want him to be healthy, but this whole billi blanket thing turned out to be a total nightmare. Here’s the story.
On the day we were scheduled to check out of the hospital, they told us that his billirubin levels were “borderline” and that they wanted to send us home with a billi blanket. Great, no problem. But, they said that the light was actually supplied by a 3rd party rental company, and that we’d have to wait for it to be delivered. It was about 10am when we started waiting. (We were due to check out at about 11). We waited and waited — in fact, didn’t actually leave the hospital until almost 6pm! And, when the delivery guy arrived, he was completely clueless about how to use the thing. He didn’t deliver it with its “cover” and actually gave us incorrect instructions on how to use it. All the while, the hospital staff and he were saying “you need to keep your baby in this 24 hours a day.” Are you kidding? We need to keep our 3 day old breastfeeding baby hooked up to a hard plastic light with a 3/4″ plastic tube hanging out of it all day long? How do we change his diapers? How to we feed him? How do we keep the thing on? (It had no straps, velcro, or similar stuff to keep it in place). No one demonstrated what to do.
So, we get home, we eat dinner with friends, and we bring him upstairs to give it a try. Screaming, screaming, and more hysterical screaming. Then, the flailing begins and the hours of dilligent swaddling, shushing, rocking and comforting culminate in the entire thing falling right off. Just to give you a feel for what this thing was like — its about 14″ long, 4″ wide, and was made out of a stiff plastic that just wanted to be flat. Oh, and it had a giant 4 foot long tube coming out of one end. So, we try swaddling him, we try putting it under his clothes (for about 30 seconds, that is) and we try a few other things and realize that there must be something we’re missing. We hadn’t gotten the fabled “covers” yet (to be delivered the next day) and we had a doctors appointment in the morning, so we decided to just wait and have the doctor show us how to use it.
So, morning comes, we head to the Dr.’s office, with the kid & billi blanket it tow. He tells us we need to be using it 24 hours a day. We say “please show us how to use it — this thing is totally impossible to use.” His response? “Its the rental equipment providers job to instruct you on how to use the device. I’ve not seen this model before and I can’t help you.” ARE YOU SERIOUS? Let it be said that now that the jaundice is over, we won’t be returning to this doctor. We were furious.
So, we get home, and with new resolve and the help of the “Miracle Blanket” we actually get him all wrapped up and sleeping in the billi blanket. Whew! Do we keep it on during feedings and his awake time? No way. Its just not realistic, in fact, just not possible. He screams bloody murder during every waking moment in that thing, and we weren’t going to subject him to that. I’m not even sure that feeding while that thing was wrapped around him was possible, he was so hysterical. So, we do the best we can, he sleeps with the light, and has a blood test the next day. Yay! His billirubin had gone down!
We spent the next 2 days doing the same thing, wrapping with the Miracle Blanket and the Billi Blanket at the same time while he sleeps. Other times, we gave him a break. By Friday (4 days of phototherapy) his billirubin levels were low enough that the doctor said we didn’t need to use the “blanket” anymore! Hooray for Isaac!
The moral of the story?
Although the design of the “Wallaby 3″ phototherapy blanket by Respironics sucks, it worked.
Apria Healthcare appears to be full of a bunch of incompetent morons.
Our first attempt at picking a Pediatrician failed miserably.
Isaac is healthy!
P.S. As an engineer, I’d like to leave some feedback for Respironics, the makers of the Wallaby 3 phototherapy blanket:
1. Include written instructions with the unit. Detail exactly how to wrap the baby securely with the light, using several different types, shapes, and styles of blanket, onesie, etc.
2. Don’t just provide a “tissue paper” cover. You need to manufacture an entire cloth swaddling blanket that fits around the phototherapy light and makes it easy to wrap the kid in the light. At least 2 of these should be included with the unit.
3. Make a longer cord! The existing cord length (~4 feet) was barely enough to reach from the power supply to the baby. I’d say 8 feet long — long enough to reach from the power supply to the crib and to a nearby chair used for breastfeeding.
4. Make the cord easier to detach & reattach. I know you think its simple the way it is, but you haven’t tried using it at 2:30am when you’re running on 2 hours of sleep.
5. Do some user testing! Its so clear to me that this is a piece of “technology” and not a user tested device. Do some user tests, and do whatever your test subjects tell you.
First off, congrats on the new addition!
Glad to hear everything is okay with the little tyke!
We had our baby 3 weeks ago, also has jaundice when they sent us home… our mid-wife’s instructions: Make sure you take him out in the sun every day, when he naps try and put him near a window so he gets some light on him. Not direct sunlight in either case, he can burn easily, but “in the light.”
Sure enough, 3 days later, no more jaundice.
We’re using the Wallaby 3 right this very moment. Yes it is a little cumbersome, but quite honestly much of the troubles you described are a bit exaggerated! It is a flat fiber-optic pad. Our baby (3 days old) is laying on it without any fuss. Yes the Apria guy said to “wrap” it around the baby, but the instructions actually say to just lay the baby on it.
Anyway, the important thing is that it works. We’ll go in for another bilirubin test tomorrow to hopefully see a decline.
Actually, there are two different pad models. One wraps around, one is designed to be used with a “vest” that wraps around the baby and has sticky tabe to hold it in place. The pad that wraps around has velcro closures. Apria is full of idiots, but the blanket is a far cry better than a billi bed. The one by Medela is like a baby straight jacket, and it requires that baby lay totally flat and velcroed in…
We had to use it with our kid three years ago, and it absolutely works. And I certainly sympathize with several of your frustrations… however, let me shed some light on some of those things (no pun intended). First of all, whoever said he has to be on it 24-hours a day non-stop is an idiot. Of course you need to take it off from time to time in case the kid $#!+s himself, but its not like if you remove it for a minute that the entire treatment is null & void – the more the better is all. Taking the thing off for feedings sounds unnecessary. We have pictures of our “glowworm” of a baby being fed by mommy as I’m shoveling food into her mouth. Using the miracle blanket was the approach we took as well and it worked fantastically – I don’t recall any issues with wrapping the lights around the kid. The only nuisance that we had was the four-foot cord. However, my electronics/lighting experience tells me that its probably something that’s not overcomeable. The wallaby is essentially a fluorescent light source that works off of high frequencies – and running high frequency power over any real length of wire (and three or four feet is usually the recommended maximum) at the levels its pushing can start to cause problems. So, it may have been somewhat of a nuisance, but consider the alternativie, if they hadn’t invented what they had invented, the kid would’ve been stuck at the hospital under a tanning bed for another three-four days – THAT would’ve been inconvenient.
Wow. great information, thank you all. We have just started the Wallaby 3 apparatus on our 3-day -old son who is jaundiced. My thoughts:
the pad is stiff, and my little guy just wont have it wrapped around him, try just him laying on it and buffer him with rolled cloths.(or blankets)
the nice thing is that the unit runs so hot, that the room is quite warm, and we dont need extra wrappings or blankets while he ison the pad.
we go in tomorrow to see if his bilirubin test has gone down from 16. hope this info helps. update to come.
[...] Jaundice is common. Ugh. I could go on and on about this one. [...]
Congrats!
Here’s a few tips we’ve discovered.
1. Make sure you have enough sleeves and change them daily. Make sure the thin side of the sleeve is positioned correctly (inside vs outside)- we got instructions. The idea is to let the light through. Buffering the baby can nullify the effect.
2. Forget the tape which is included. It only sticks to itself and loses its stickiness after a few diaper changes. The visiting nurse recommeded duct tape which may be a bit extreme. We used shipping tape from the postal service. It looked like we were trying to ship the baby, but it worked great!
3. Take a onesie and roll it up under their arms so it provides a cushion for their armpits and then the plastic won’t discomfort them.
4. I agree with the need for the longer cord, but I’m sure there is an good engineering reason for it to be that length (see above).
5. They could use a quieter fan. This one sounded like PC technology from about 10 years ago. Newer ball-bearing fans are whisper quiet and won’t keep you or the baby awake at night.
Overall, the thing worked great. After discontinuing its use on a newborn for 3 days, we treated the baby to some indirect sunlight which also helped.
You left out the part about the $1500/day cost….
For some reason ours isn’t having any trouble with her’s. I hate these kinds of interventions nonetheless. Studies say sunlight should do the trick too – but everyone seems to say sunlight is the worst thing for infants. Its been a little too cold to take her our in the sun unfortunately.
I just wanted to leave my thoughts on this. I absolutly hate it, but I agree it’s alot better than spending time at the hospital were you can’t really be with them 24/7. I feel bad for the person who had to pay $1500 a day. We only have to pay $96.00 a day. It is such an inconvience b/c we are confinde to two rooms in the house. Our daughter is only 4 days old and she is so fussy b/c of this. The stupid tape doesn’t work and we had to find an alternative. It works alot better. I feel like my lil “glowworm” is being tortured. I was told that she was going to be on a “blanket” so when I was told that I figured that it was just something that we laid ontop or under her. We agree about leaving it on 24 hours. We live at least 45 min from the hospital and she is off it for at least 2 hours. We didn’t like taking it off of her after that b/c we were told to keep it on. Needless to say she had it off for about 30 mins after we got back home b/c she was so fussy with it on. Tomorrow is our 3rd testing day and we hope that it came down so she doesn’t have to be a “glowworm” anymore.