F**king Brady’s. Why?

O

onjanji

New member
Like many NICU parents we have one last frustrating milestone to cross: 5 days without Bradys.

Our 34+1 has done marvelously well, going from 4lb3oz to 4lb9oz in less than two weeks. Never needed oxygen, Ng tube for about a week, and every single Brady has been self corrected. He’ll be 36 weeks tomorrow.

The nurses and doctors all say that the Brady’s aren’t concerning despite the clock policy. So what’s the actual risk of taking your child home if it’s not concerning? Some slim likelihood of him not self correcting for the first time ever?

I don’t disagree, just looking for the process and thinking behind the policy. There’s a lot of risk that exists in bringing a premature newborn home - and I’d imagine risk from them staying in the NICU. So I’m trying to understand why this is what’s best for him. Thanks for any perspectives!
 
@onjanji I can’t really answer your question except to say I would interpret the nurses/doctors statement to mean that it’s not concerning ‘at this gestational age.’ We were always told the babies outgrow them and anecdotally the nurses told us around 36 weeks or so. Then sure enough, our son was discharged at 36+5, after completing 5 Brady free days.

It’s certainly frustrating to be stuck in the nicu for Brady events, we were in the same boat just trying to be patient and failing at that.

Best of luck for you and your family!
 
@onjanji No advice or anything. Just wanted to echo your sentiment. FUCK BRADYS.

My daughter was born 33+2, spent 31 days in the NICU, is almost 3.5 years old now, and I still hate that b-word.
 
@onjanji My son was born at 29w6d and stayed 75 days in the NICU. The last 4 weeks of his stay, we were only waiting for him to have 5 days without any Brady’s. it is frustrating to wait for but it is important. The reason it’s important is if they have a Brady at home while you are sleeping, how would you know? We often got close to the home date and at the last moment my son would brady again. A lot of times it was fine, but I had witnessed him needing a lot of help when he was close to going home. It only takes 1 bad Brady for something horrible to happen and trust me, you want to be close to nurses. Hang in there, your turn to come home will come.
 
@onjanji They didn't have that same sort of clock for my NICU baby. She would have self corrected Bradys every time she ate because she refluxed all the time, and they never counted those. They only counted ones that required intervention like tapping/rubbing to get her heart rate back up. We almost had a reset because a nurse had incorrectly said my baby had a 10 minute episode of apnea and brady requiring intervention, even though she didn't. She had a short Brady, no apnea, and it was over by the time the nurse came in, but she hung around and poked at my baby for a few minutes before rounds. The main doctor checked the charts and saw that what the nurse charted down as a serious incident was actually nothing, and they finally let us go home later that day at my insistence. Good thing, because we had to change her formula just a couple days later because what the NICU had her on was making her reflux worse. It is definitely frustrating though, but if you're just waiting for a 5 day no Brady counter, you're so close !! I hope you get to bring home your baby soon.
 
@spreadinglove Was your LO on straight formula or breast milk with fortifier? I’m considering asking them about cutting out the fortifier and going for a higher volume of just milk based on what some other comments say about the fortifier
 
@onjanji Originally was donor milk with fortifier fed through a tube (and she would push it out back into the tube all the time), then she was on Enfamil enfacare with no fortifier when they switched her to bottle feeds. Just the sterile premade liquid. When she was discharged we had to switch to powder though because they wanted us to make her formula 24cal be side her weight wasn't quite how they wanted it. Idk if it was the powder form or what, but when we brought her home her reflux was so much worse. She would turn red and bend her back backwards and cry. It would almost look like she was having a seizure sometimes. Her pediatrician had us switch to nutramigen and those episodes stopped. She still spits up a lot and she now has reflux meds that we are supposed to start giving her. But it's like almost 4 months since we came home and they're just now telling us the reflux is a problem even though she's gaining weight and having normal poop and pee. What i can tell you though babies have very small tummies. They can't really handle too large of quantity at one time. That was the other big change we made at home. Feeding her less but more often. Honestly the dietician she had in the NICU is pretty great, so if your NICU team has a good dietician, definitely a good person to talk to if you have any feeding concerns related to proper nutrition.
 
@onjanji We’re on a 3 day no desats counter ourselves right now, which is frustrating because he’s always been self-correcting and the desats always happen when he’s gassy or trying to poop, and thus he’s wiggling around and scrunching his face.
 
@onjanji Yep. My 34 weeker got held back several times because of bradys, they stink. And we had a few at home too (I had the owlet) I just wiggled him awake and they would stop.
 
@onjanji Unfortunately this is part of their protocols. This means that if your child were to leave before 5 days without Brady's then have to be readmitted because of related issues the hospital would be on the hook to cover some of the cost (insurance demands it). So they develop these protocols to protect you and the hospital. They look at case history and say that after x about of time the risk of relapse is x and that is acceptable.

P.S. I echo your sentiment. They really suck
 
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