Oxygen

[Afternooncatnap]

My son is 10 months. The plan was for me to go back to work in January for two days a week. He would be left in a nursery.

He does have some issues. Mainly that he is deaf and has some development delays. The nursery's I've spoken too have said they will still take him.

There is now talk of him potentially going on oxygen. His blood saturation sits quite low, high 80s to low 90s. We are currently waiting for a breathing study to be done.

So if anyone has experience of babies on oxygen, could you let me know about your experience in general. If your babies needed it 24/7 or of it could be taken off or just used at night. If normal nursery's will take a baby on oxygen.

Any information would be helpful just so I can get an idea of what to expect.

Why is his oxygen so low?

I have to say I’m not sure any nursery would be happy taking on a baby that needed oxygen in their care? I’m sorry - that’s probably not what you want to hear.

I pretty much figured nursery's wouldn't take him but thought I'd ask.

We don't know why his oxygen is low. His heart is fine. We hope the breathing study may tell us but, based on past experiences I doubt it's going to give any answers. He's a bit of a medical enigma.

Is it always low or just low in his sleep?

I hope you get some answers soon. I know how frustrating it is seeing your child ill and yet not be able to understand why or what you can do to help them. Stay strong and I have all my fingers crossed for you that there’ll be something that can be treated. I hope also you can find someone else who can look after him so you can go back to work and/or get some time for yourself.

Hope you get some answers soon OP.

I'd hope nurseries would have to accept your son with oxygen if he did end up needing it, because of 'reasonable adjustments' that need to be made for children with additional needs under law.

I could be wrong though, but it is a thought if you struggle to find a place for him if he did need the oxygen.

I think you need to find out what your child needs and then approach a setting with it in mind that they might need funding for a 1-1 worker. I have worked with children with very complex needs as a 1-1 in an early years setting.

In my experience (I have a disabled son), many places, whilst not being able to turn away your child outright, may make you feel as though your child will not be welcome. Have a look at all available settings, talk to them about inclusion and how they work with parents and outside professionals, training they would undertake etc.

OK so I may be able to find a nursery that will take him. That's good. I'm not sure about 1-1 care at a nursery as you don't get childcare funding until the child turns 2 (according to snhv). He's got other issues so snhv would have been meeting with the nursery anyway. I wasn't sure about oxygen as I thought it might be a health and safety risk.