Comments on: Goodbye, cruel Wallaby 3 phototherapy blanket (i.e. “Billi Blanket”)

By: Al

Al — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:28:38 +0000

First off if ANYONE has any question on how to use, simply visit:
http://global.respironics.com/UserGuides/UserGuideWallaby3Parents.pdf

Secondly: Nearly every “point” you made to Respironics has nothing to do with respironics. The provider (apria) should have given you either a pamplet, printout or at least directed you to the site above.
Light penetrates the paper and would not penetrate the cloth.
Your provider has an option to buy a longer cord, again your providers decision.
Make the cord easier to reatach? Think of the power consumption of this unit… from one engineer to another, do some research. Also, there are strict laws in this area.
Research on users? I don’t think you understand what is happening, why or even how. I think you are giving Respironics the blame while it belongs to apria. Well put Nurse Heather. Happy your baby is safe.

By: Kat

Kat — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 04:48:53 +0000

We are currently using a billi-blanket for our newborn daughter. It is bulky, especially on a smaller baby, but it’s manageable. We did find that she was refusing to nurse while wearing this, and she takes a good while to nurse, so I am pumping into bottles for now. Hopefully this will work and we can have our baby healthy soon.

By: Angie Nurse

Angie Nurse — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 02:51:33 +0000

I am also a home health nures and cannot believe some of the comments I have read. I own a company that provides both phototherapy and nursing visits to check the bilirubin levels. We set up 3-4 infants per day on lights and have so many patients that tell us how glad they were that their baby needed the lights because our nurses taught them so much about the first few days of life. I stress that it is a simple but inconvenient therapy. Yes it should be used as many hours as possible in order to get rid of it as soon as possible. Certain levels require more rigid guidelines. I did not see any posts about levels so I will just briefly say that the level is based on the infants age that determines his/her need for therapy. In other words a level of 14 in a three day old is much more serious that a level of 14 in a 7 day old. There is a algorhythm chart that plots the level of treatment based on their results. Although many cases of jaundice do not require phototherapy, It is very important to treat high risk jaundice as the consequenses of non treatment in are permanent. A company that delivers without training should be reported to your MD and to the referral source, in this case the hospital so that other patients do not have the same bad service. They should also have a 24hour on call service that you can call for problems. Phototherapy is not uncomfortable to the baby if used correctly. I find in my practice that it is generally hunger and cold that is usually blamed on the phototherapy and once those are corrected, the baby is soundly sleeping as most newborns do. Thank you all for helping me to see things that concern parents and be able to address those concerns with my patients. For the electronic techs out there, the actual light source is a light bulb that is tranmitted via fiberoptic cable to the panel thereby not burning the infant with heat or rays. It is a simple therapy and very effective.

By: Maciej

Maciej — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 02:42:17 +0000

Our newborn daughter is currently using two of these (one with a long paddle, for her back, one with a short paddle for her front) as a precaution, and I have to agree, they are absolutely terrible from a use perspective for all the reasons listed and more. That said, we found a good way to get the little one all hooked up: We put her in one of these http://goo.gl/A4JsW swaddling sleep sacks, and snaked the two paddles in through the bottom. They stay put more or less (certainly better than with the flimsy slip covers), and she doesn’t seem to mind.

Obviously, we’re going to be very happy when this is no longer necessary, but at least the tubes coming out of blanket, and the unearthly blue glow coming out of the arm holes make her look like the Baby of the Future!

By: Shelley

Shelley — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:50:17 +0000

I was just googleing to fing out the best way to use this Wallaby 3 and I came upon this. I just had my 4th daughter a week ago and she is really yellow. All my other daughters were yellow my first being the worst. With her though the delivery company wouldn’t deliver on a holiday weekend. Then they said they had none available… by the time we got the blanket (a week later) She was almost cleared up. We used sunlight and breastfeeding every two hours. I have found that high bili babies sleep a lot more so you may have to wake them up ofter to eat but it does really help. The Next two of my children were yellow but not enough to worry about and went down quickly after 4 days. Now this one is rather high like my first and the doctor wanted me to try this blanket. I hope all the advice I can get it to work ok. If not I will stick to sunlight and breastfeeding, worked with the other three.

By: Nurse Heather

Nurse Heather — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 04:14:40 +0000

I just happened to stumble upon this, but I would like to mention that I am a nurse who works for a DME company that supplies wallaby phototherapy blankets. My company uses nurses to set up certain equipment, such as the wallaby and I truly think it is a shame that this company did not bother to explain to you how to use your wallaby. It is an inconvenience, but you have to consider the alternative, which would have been an extended stay at the hospital. Most babies bili levels are down within a few days and can come off of it with no lasting effects. It really is no big deal! I have also had to set new parents up with ventilators and o2 and feeding pumps for their babies who are months old and are finally able to come home from the NICU…so the next time you folks whine about having to have a little glow baby for a few days, be thankful that your child can breathe on its own, and eat by mouth, and is not hooked up to a vent and oxygen 24 hours a day!

By: Robert Blubaugh

Robert Blubaugh — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 00:35:38 +0000

Just a brief comment. As a neonatologist I refuse to use Apria for my bili blankets, enough said. There is a reason for the blue color, discovered by Dr. LeRoy Mims, it is the optimal wave length to turn on the glucoronyl transferase system in the skin. Sunlight is very effective but babies can burn just like anyone else. Holding the baby with light against the skin and changing the “side” in which the light strikes every 2 hrs is very effective on moderate bilirubins. You tell parents to use it 24 hrs a day in hopes of getting at least half the time. My father was an engineer, therefore, I understand engineers are anal retentive and when you tell them 24 hrs they try to really do it. We are out of bili-blankets, medicaid patients do not return them so I have admitted 5 newborns THIS week back to the hospital for phototx. Medicaid reimburses at 17.00/day, Good reference, Pediatrics, (medical journal), November 2010, Relationship between Autism and Hyperbilirubenemia in Denmark. Good luck

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:21:24 +0000

As for the self-sticking tape. There’s a veterinary product called Vetwrap, used most often for horses, which is stretchy, soft, and sticks to itself. I would think that Vetwrap would be a good solution to the tape situation. Comes in nice colors too….

By: Lynda

Lynda — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 04:05:33 +0000

I just wanted to say that while the bili blanket may be annoying and cumbersome, be thankful you did not get stuck with what I have deemed “the baby tanning bed”. I wasn’t allowed to hold my son, except to nurse and change him, for 3 whole days. It was the worst weekend of my life (except the week we had him circumcised!), and I’d rather use a blanket. With my daughter, we just used sunlight, and it took several weeks, 6-7, for her jaundice to clear up. But breastfeeding went much better and was far more successful with her, in a small part because I didn’t spend 3 days not holding her.

I’m sorry your delivery guy and your Dr. were morons, and I’m sorry your experience was so horrible. However, like most things in life, remember that it could have been worse.

Though it’s 3 years after the fact, congrats on the birth of your son. Mine will be 3 in Jan., my daughter just turned 10, and I have another on the way, due in Dec. I was looking at a blanket, but I’m beginning to think that the sunlight route is the way to go, again. Thanks for your posts.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:34:29 +0000

hi — just wanted to offer one other idea for working with the phototherapy blanket — there’s a type of gauze that sticks to itself — I used it in a criss-cross across my baby’s torso and it kept the blanket on nice and snug. (When we just wrapped it straight around her, it had a tendency to ride up and chafe under her armpits.)