To suggest breast feeding in these circumstances?

[WrongWayWound]

Serious question, I'm not a nurse and know nothing about how an ecg works. There could be a very valid reason why I shouldn't!

DD (2) had an ecg yesterday in A&E (not urgent, it was an outpatient request). She had a cold already and adding to the getting her clothes off and sticking wires all over she sobbed and sobbed. She'd already been poked, prodded and pricked with a needle and was well at the end of her tether. The nurse said she needed to be very still, so I suggested I fed her whilst it was done. She would have lay still and quiet across me.

Instead she was held still crying (wouldn't this affect it? I did notice she had a heart rate of 130) and when I suggested feeding her the nurse looked pretty horrified and said 'No!Now is NOT the time for that!' in a shocked tone.

WIBU? It was a purely practical suggestion of mine having assessed DD was unlikely to stop crying any other way. I haven't fed her outside the house in a year, and it's actually pretty rare I do but when she's ill it's a comfort and I amazingly seem to still make milk on demand.

[petalsandstars]

Yanbu. It may be the fact she is older than a typical bf baby and the nurse hasn't come across this before. But it saddens me the severity of the reaction. If I were still bf I'd have suggested the same - or just done it anyway

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Brilliant idea. No idea why the nurse didn't think so.

[WorraLiberty]

No you weren't being unreasonable to suggest feeding her, and the nurse wasn't unreasonable to say no.

I suspect she's dealt with this situation many times and probably know what works best.

Hope your DD feels better soon

[WrongWayWound]

Oh not to drip feed, she is older BUT delayed. Her understanding of language is around that of a 1 yr old (or lower...I'd had different assessments). She is a big fat baby! I couldn't explain it to her at all, it's obvious she has not language and is pretty small.

[Aeroflotgirl]

I think the nurse should have allowed you to feed her so that she calms down, she is only little.

[prettywoman35]

sounds like a good idea. My poorly dd aged 2 is constanty feeding though.

[AlwaysDancing1234]

The nurses reaction seems a bit over the top. You know your child and if your DD is anything like mine it would have calmed her almost instantly, in fact I have fed DD whilst she had an ECG, as long as you are careful of the wires. Our doctor said it helped get a more accurate and realistic reading!

[IceBeing]

That sounds really stupid. I am a veteran of hundreds of ECG. The advice is still and relaxed. Not fighting....

They should have allowed you to calm your daughter down and then tried again.

[hazeyjane]

Ds has annual ecgs and the nurses are the same, they just get it over and done with as quickly as possible (the wire attachment). I don't know why they wouldn't let you feed her, but just to say the nurses who do ds's would probably be the same - and her crying wouldn't affect the ecg results.

Hope she is ok now.

[IceBeing]

Sorry I wasn't totally clear there...the nurse was being stupid not the OP!

[WrongWayWound]

Well whilst I left her to post this she painted herself, the tv, table, sofa and dvd with from age frais. I'll take it she's on the up... a word of warning, much munch doesn't wash off easily.

I would have found it fine to hear something like 'oh no, she's needs to be flat' or something, it was just a bit embarrassing the tone. It was sooooo quick, spent ages attaching the wires, and sod all on the ecg.

hazey, thank. Good to know it wasn't just a waste of time! She wasn't fighting bless her, just sobbing pitifully.

[WrongWayWound]

predictive text! I made no typos!

[Theboodythatrocked]

Oh bless her. Of course you should have been allowed to feed her op. Eminently sensible. The nurse was daft.

[hazeyjane]

Ds is always having wires stuck to him, ecgs, eegs etc. he has a 24 hour ecg coming up, so keeping the wires attached will be fun! Nothing ever shows up, so frustrating, because whatever the concern is has to happen in that little window.

Hope you get the formage frais out of your furniture, and dd gets a break from being prodded and poked.

[Icimoi]

Was she young? It sounds a bit as if she was immature and inexperienced.

[WrongWayWound]

can I ask you hazy about eegs? dd has one soon, any survival tips? Anything worth knowing? Thanks

The nurse was otherwise very pleasant, even tried to sing to her. Late 40's and seemed kind-natured generally. Not a nasty person, that's why I thought there was good reason not to. She just looked shocked, then quickly glossed over it and sung to dd.

[WrongWayWound]

hazey, dd has about one/ two seizures a month! Can't see it being caught!

[hazeyjane]

Ds has had a sleep deprivation EEG, where he was given melatonin before hand, and the wires were stuck on whilst he was falling asleep. This lasted about an hour. He has also had a 48 hour EEG, applying the wires for this took a long time, and distraction seemed to work, dh and I clowning around and lots of toys. The bit that was hard was taking the wires off, it took forever, and they have to use acetone to remove the glue, the smell is dreadful and ds became very distressed. I'm afraid I have no wise words on this, nothing we did could calm him down. the other thing we have done, was video the seiUre like activity that ds has, and burnt it onto a DVD provided by the hospital, so that the specialist can look at it. Apparently they often have more success identifying the type of seizure this way - it might be worth asking the neurologist or clinician about doing this. Good luck.

[vdbfamily]

Could it possibly have been a misunderstanding by the nurse. She probably felt she had to get the job done as quickly as she could and might have felt you were suggesting that if you fed baby for a while, they would be more settled, rather than,if you fed your baby, they could do what they needed to at the same time.
My youngest has had to have bladder scans from the age of 7 weeks old. She was not allowed to move a millimetre for 3x 10 minute scans. When she was little, I would feed her to sleep and they would scan. When she was a toddler they had to bind her with sheets to the bed and I would have to read stories and do puppet shows. From about 3 onwards she would watch a dvd. It was always a nightmare!!

[anothernumberone]

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that maybe toddler feeding did not sit well with the nurse. I know when my SIL told a midwife a fecking midwife that she was still feeding a toddler, after she had a newborn, the midwife was visibly horrified and made all kinds of 'oh my god what will you do now' noises because no one ever before tandem fed. Our culture is pretty ignorant of bf in general and there is a possibility that this is just another example of it. Fwiw I think it was a great idea if of course there are no real contra indications for doing it.

[InfinitySeven]

I don't think you are supposed to eat or drink during an ECG. I had to have mine redone when I had to drink during it. No idea why, but they were quite strict on it.

[hazeyjane]

Infinity, how would that work during a 24 hour ECG?

[anothernumberone]

Infinity I did wonder about that but someone up thread spoke about a child having a 48 hour one so I thought you might be able to eat. It would definitely make sense if eating is not permitted.

[IceBeing]

They are more accurate the less muscle activity there is. I think having a drink would be less movement than wriggling while being held down.....

As an adult they can say, oh lets do it again without the drinking. In this case the drinking would likely have improved the accuracy rather than decreasing it!