O2 sats in difficult child while concentrating. Hm...

[Shari]

The allergist/immunologist wanted to put difficult child on a pulsox overnight to see if he's desatting.

We were setting it up and familiarizing him with it. He was trying to put it on himself, and I noticed, while he was attaching the arm band, which he had to really concentrate to do, his sats went down to 90%. Anytime he concentrated on something in the short time he had it on, the sats hung right around 90%. If he was just piddling around or being "normal", it was 98-100%.

No idea if it means anything or not, but I thought it was interesting and I'm going to pass it on to his doctor.

 

[house of cards]

Could he be holding his breath when he is concentrating? How long do the numbers stay down? It is interesting and a great observation.

 

[Shari]

No, I thought that too and watched and he's still breathing. Longest it stayed down at any point that I caught it was about a minute, he was trying to thread a velcro strap thru the monitor to put it on and that was the longest he concentrated on anything. Just interesting.

 

[pepperidge]

out of curiosity, put it on him when he is playing a gameboy or something. Also when he is trying to do a math problem. interesting observation.

there is some evidence that suggests that electrical activity in prefrontal cortex actually declines in ADHD type kids when they are concentrating. Wonder if this might be related?

 

[Shari]

I'm not sure how the thing works as far as how it records, etc, so I don't want to mess with it too much, but I'm going to ask for one that we can stick on him thru part of a day or something, cause I think this is worth looking into a little farther. At least far enuf to verify or not that what I saw is really happening.