Designing children's garments to secure long-term invasive devices

Abstract

Children and infants with complex nutritional needs usually require long-term invasive devices, which are cared for by their families with the support of clinical nutrition teams. These families face many challenges to ensure the security of the devices, including preventing accidental removal and dislodgement. Using an experience-based co-design approach, a project designed and produced functional garments to improve the security of the devices and maintain patient dignity.

This article has been double-blind peer reviewed

In this article…

• The long-term invasive devices used by children and the challenges they cause

• A collaborative project to design and trial garments that address these challenges

• The benefits of involving service users in quality-improvement projects

Key points

Children with complex nutritional needs usually require multiple long-term invasive devices

They can be dislodged or accidentally removed, risking bleeding, infection and hospital visits

A collaborative project designed and tested garments that hold devices securely in place

A bespoke garment was also designed for a child with complex needs not met by the prototypes

The garments can improve quality of life for the children and their families, and reduce hospital admissions