Bronchiolitis is a common type of chest infection that tends to affect babies and young children under a year old. In older children and adults, the same viruses that cause bronchiolitis lead to the 'common cold'. The symptoms of bronchiolitis are like a common cold and include a blocked or runny nose, a cough and a mildly raised temperature. Bronchiolitis affects the bronchioles which are the smaller breathing tubes in the lungs. They produce more mucus than usual and become swollen, leading to a cough and a runny nose. In more severe cases, the tubes become clogged up with mucus which causes breathing problems. In some babies, the breathing problems may present as breathing fast, with in-drawing of the muscles around the rib cage, and in rare cases, very young babies with bronchiolitis may stop breathing for brief periods ('apnoea'). The illness usually starts with a mild runny nose or cough, gets worse over three to five days or so, and then slowly gets better, usually lasting about 10 to 14 days in total. Around 2 in 100 infants with bronchiolitis will need to spend some time in hospital during the course of their illness. This is usually for one of two reasons: they need oxygen treatment to keep their oxygen saturations within acceptable levels or they cannot manage to feed from the breast or a bottle because of a blocked nose or difficulty breathing. Here at the Children's Hospital for Wales we are using 'High flow' to deliver oxygen. This is a relatively new concept on the general paediatric wards, and more established in a setting such as High Dependency Unit (HDU). However, we have been using it successfully on the wards for the last 3 years. High flow device delivering a mixture of oxygen and air at high flow to help open the child's airways so that their lungs can add oxygen to their blood. It is given through a set of prongs (short plastic tubes) inserted just inside the nostrils. Research has shown that the early use of high flow can reduce the chances of the child needing escalation of care to a high dependency unit or paediatric intensive care unit. The investigators are interested in studying the process of weaning high flow support once the child is over the worst of their illness. This will enable the investigators to use the most effective method of weaning babies from their high flow, and ready for discharge. This has the potential to reduce the number of hours spent in hospital for babies and their parents or guardians.
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AI-rewrites the medical criteria so a patient or caregiver can understand them. Always confirm with the trial site.
Examine the feasibility of different weaning strategies for infants with bronchiolitis requiring HFNC.
Timeframe: This will be during the recruitment time of the study (2 years)
Identify the proportion of recruited patients who supply secondary outcome data.
Timeframe: This will be during the recruitment time of the study (2 years)
Assess the adherence of the teams on the ward to the weaning protocol assigned during randomisation.
Timeframe: This will be during the recruitment time of the study (2 years)
Assess the acceptability of HFNC and the weaning strategy by parents and healthcare staff.
Timeframe: This will be during the recruitment time of the study (2 years)