United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I need your help!

As some of you may know I am what is called a "Child Passanger Safety Technician." Which means that I have been trained to teach parents and others how travel safely in vehicals. I mostly work with car seats and cars/trucks/vans. Anyway about a year ago I was thrust into the whole BPI arena and discovered that if Ian had to use a splint after a surgery I would have tons of concerns about how to use his seat correctly and not hurt the speical work done for his healing. And I figured many of you might too. Especially since the stats tell us 4 out of 5 are using thier seats incorrectly in the overall population. Not meaning to make any of you feel bad.. car seat and vehical people haven't made it easy.. anyway! I am hoping to try and research this and see if I can come up with some answers but first I need help from some of you!

Ian hasn't had any surgeries (Praise God) so I haven't had any hands on experiance with the Splints. So I am hoping to see if any of you who still have you kids old splints might be able to share them with me so I can try them out with car seats. And then I will be better able to give any of you advice about how to be safe with your kids!

Thanks,
Kristie

Kristie - will you be going to a picnic in the near future because inevitably there are usually some children in splints and that way you can see how it all works together. I can send you a splint but without the kid in it, what information would that supply you with?
-francine

Kristie, I think it's great that you want to put your car seat training to work to help children with BPIs!! Expanding upon Francine's thought about picnics, I wonder if you could contact a picnic coordinator who's planning a picnic that you could commit to attend, and make special arrangements to do a demonstration. You could work with the picnic coordinator to make sure that there will be children there with different types of splints (perhaps not necessarily relying on children who are just out of surgery to be there, but planning for people with old splints to bring them -- an assortment of splints) and try them in a few different styles of car seats too. Maybe it would also be a good way to help siblings feel a part of the whole picnic too by asking some children who are siblings of children with BPIs to help demonstrate (trying on the splint and sitting in the car seat or just with a seatbelt on). Then, when it's all done maybe you could write something up for parents. I don't mean to "volunteer" you for all this. I know we're not close in proximity, but if the picnic you choose to attend is one that I can attend as well, I'll be glad to help you however I can. If you do go through with something like this, but I cannot attend the same picnic, then I'd at least be glad to help you write something up afterward. I have a personal interest in this area too. I haven't ever taken any training courses, just watched the officer who came to our house a couple times and talked to him about it a lot. Plus, I'm just interested b/c of the seriousness involved in the matter and the concern over how many car seats are improperly installed. Anyway, there are some thoughts. It's kind of funny thinking about having siblings demonstrate the splints b/c just today Nicole's friend was trying on her Mod Quad and Caps splints. I took pics of her and can't wait to surprise her Mom with them!

Also, if you wanted to practice in the meantime, I can send you an immobilizer and SOL splint if I can find a huge box for shipping. Did you and Christy determine if are near each other proximity-wise (just another thought).

Oh well, think about it and let me know your thoughts.


-Tina )

FYI - another thought just came to my mind that I figured I'd share with you all. I was informed by an officer trained and certified in car seat safety that when a car seat has been in an automobile accident, it is no longer safe to use and should be replaced immediately. This is so important and well documented that you can include the car seat as part of a claim and insurance companies will cover the cost of the new car seat. Safe travels. -Tina )

I am planning on going to a picnic or maybe a few depending on life!! I would like to do a demo for the families (and I love the idea about using the siblings!!!) but I wanted to try it first and I have some other research to do about how tight the straps should be. I want to talk to doctors who preform the surgery and talk to other car seat people and see what they think. So I am thinking that it is highly unlikley that I would be totally prepared to do a demo in the near future.

As I was typing the message I thought about Christy. She is not too far from me and I think Katie has had three of the surgeries that are the most invloved for the car seat age. Although we recommend car/booster seat until kids are 8 years or 80 lbs. But after 40lbs you use the regular seat belt (unless you have the fisher price 20/60 seat but that is another story!)
I appericate your offer to mail me your splints but lets wait until I talk to Christy. Plus I might be able to practice at a few picnic and then I will be ready to give a preview thingy!
Thanks for you input!
Always,
Kristie

That is absolutely right Tina. We also suggest contacting your vehicle manufacturer about replacing the actual seat belts as well. From what I was taught in my class they (seat belts and car seats) are a one time crash only!
Kristie