Telling youg children why you have a cpap

Funny this just came up on the forums. Our little almost 5-yr. old granddaughter was just introduced to Grandma's breathing machine this weekend. In her typical, caretaker fashion, before we went to sleep on Saturday night, she said "Grandma, are you getting sleepy? Then put on your mask!". I don't think she's been traumatized by this in any way. I just told her that I needed this machine and mask so I could breathe properly at night. She looked it over and then went off to play with her dollies.

Thanks so much for the wonderful stories! I am sort of looking forward to showing my Grandaughter. She is a real pistol and has a great sense of humor. i will share when that happens the next few weeks. I have a grandson on the way, Sept 4th. He will never know the difference. It is good for a laugh to deal with this. I like to laugh if you have not already guessed by my handle.

Ah, if you like to laugh, you're in the right spot.

I'll look forward to hearing how you go with your granddaughter. And congratuations on your future grandson - 4th September, great day to be born!

I told my youngest nephew that it was my "nose snorkel" hooked up to my "dreaming machine" I did tell him that it just blew air down my throat so I could sleep better & that I wouldn't snore anymore. He's 8 & took it in stride. Wasn't at all bothered. My older niece & nephew were psyched that I didn't snore during the visit.

My kids are 10,9, 7 and 2, and it was no big deal. I was worried they would think it was weird (I did), but the 7 year old thought it was super-cool. He even tried it out. Now he wants one of his own......

My kids were fine with it also.

My 7-year old was nervous about it at first, but is OK with it now more or less (she spent the first week and a half of her life in NICU, and machines and lights and certain noises still bother her). It certainly doesn't make her hesistate to come snuggle down if there's a storm or she has a bad dream or something...

My 4-year old was a baby when I went on the hose, so he's always known me with it. He's perfectly happy to bounce in to wake daddy up on a weekend morning. (Occasionally he forgets to not stand on my hose though ).

In my son's case my CPAP had an unintended benefit. Around the beginning of the year he went in for an upper endoscopy. The anesthesiologist brought out the kids mask and started explaining to my son what it was for, how it would smell, and so on. My son simply took the mask from the doc and stuck it to his own face - correct placement and everything. The doc was surprised, until I explained that I use a full-face CPAP mask so he's just doing what daddy does!

piggy mask girl wrote:I have to go and see my 7 year old Grandaughter in a few weeks and she often comes in my room to wake me up in the morning. I thought I would bring it up because things can be scary for children if they don't understand. Perhaps you have some fun stories to share.

Children may not be the only observers to inform about XPAP equipment. Last week while recuperating from my surgery, I had a wonderful vet tech come to the house 3 times a day to care for the cats. I was aroused to snickering shocked vet tech as she came into my room to feed one of my cats in bed with me. Being drugged, sleepy and not feeling well, I wasn't motivated to explained my sleep apparatus, so there wasn't any direct comments. I wonder what her conversations about caring for my cats included!!!!
elg5cats

"UPDATE FROM MY Orinal blog" Well finally I did visit my Grandaughter and she saw my CPAP for the first time. I did show it to her prior to going to bed that night. She told me she saw it on TV on one of her shows and how the kid on the show added bubbles to the machine to play a trick. I, of course, reinforced this was not a good thing to do. She wanted to try it on and I let her feel the air coming out of the machine. I told her it was my snore machine and I called it my Piggymask. She said it looked more like an elephant. I said okay! it is an elephant machine. Then she was sure to tell me she would never have to wear that when she went to bed... I reassured her she would not. After that, she had no problems.

stanps wrote:To my 11 year old daughter it is just part of the whole "my dad is weird" package.

For me and my, then 5 yr. old, Granddaughter it was pretty much the same as everyone else except for "stanps" I was Goofy!