Has anyone sent a child to summer camp with a cpap?  I would like Chris (7) to have the opportunity to go to camp, but I am not quite sure how this would work.  By the time she would be at camp she would have had the  cpap for 3-4 months max.  Any info would be helpful.

Susanne

I dont personally know any kids who have taken their CPAP on summer camp trips.  I know of someone who does travel with a CPAP regularly, and who even took one on several high-school band trips.  Machines are relatively small now, so travel is pretty easy.  I think a CPAP machine would be a terrible reason to miss summer camp!  As long as youve got electricity at the camp, then it could travel with her.  After 3-4 months on CPAP, C should be fairly used to it.  I think it would be a good thing if the friends who would be attending camp with Chris were somehow exposed to the mask beforehand, in order to keep it from being an anxious experience at camp.  

I know kids often worry about the social aspects of having to sleep with CPAP...even if just for a weekend sleepover.  I have seen that kids who have close friends who already have some exposure to the mask do just fine around it.  Sometimes parents need to give the other kids a sort of "orientation" to the CPAP just to normalize it for them.  "It's not weird, it helps me sleep better", etc.  or... "Its a machine that lets me dream whatever I want at night!", etc.
I've also seen kids who would take craft store "bling", and stickers of their favorite cartoon, sports team, etc. and put them all over the machine in order to make it their own, which I think is good.

I know this is an old post, but DID your daughter go to camp?  I've been wondering about that too...my son LOVED camp last summer and can't wait to go again, but I wondered how they'd handle his CPAP?