Play mats, chairs and food pouches for High Risk clinic

Thanks to your donations, the Physiotherapy and Speech and language therapy (SALT) teams have received some new equipment and resources to help with clinic appointments and ongoing care.

A special play mat and chairs, along with special food pouches are being used for assessments in physiotherapy, speech and language during high-risk clinics. Read on to find out more!

Your donations funded special puree pouches and bite melt foods required for speech and language assessments.

These special foodstuffs are so important to some children with congenital heart disease as introducing them to solids prior to surgery improves oral intake outcomes following surgery.

Speech and Language Therapist Jess Symonds, whose role was funded thanks to your donations has this thank you for supporters:

“I just wanted to thank CHSF and supporters for the grant to purchase food pouches and melty puffs. This has allowed us help introduce weaners to our high-risk babies when they attend clinic.

 

“This has meant that parents have support when introducing purees to their babies.

 

“All the pouches have now been used to support babies in their feeding journey and all the babies are now eating well.”

Specialist Physiotherapist in Adult and Children’s Congenital Cardiology Sarah Hibbert also wanted to thank you for helping to fund specialist mats and chairs.

These resources allow for patient assessments, and enable the family to be given suggestions on equipment and play for home. The chairs also give the patients a more comfortable and supportive seating to enhance the patients journey enabling early mobilisation.

Sarah said:

“Jess and I just want to say a huge thank you to you and your supporters as the equipment allows us to assess the patients in each clinic appointment, and then advise the families on ongoing development”

It is only with your support that we can keep funding vital and life-changing projects for our heart unit, patients and families.