‘Taping’: An old hospital practice

CEBU, Philippines - A pediatrician yesterday said that putting surgical plaster to hold a pacifier over an infant’s mouth used to be a practice in hospitals but was stopped since the Department of Health started a Mother-Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.

The pediatrician who requested anonymity said that the problem with the Cebu Puericulture Center and Maternity House Inc.  officials is that they denied practicing it.

The controversy was also triggered by the nurse’s inability to politely explain the situation to the parents.

“Ang pagsulti sa nurse wala lang gyod natarong pag-explain sa parents. Bisa’g ako, masuko gyud ko kung giingon ato ko pagtubag,” said the male doctor who has been in the medical practice for 20 years now.

“And it was a mistake nga they weren’t able to explain properly to the parents,” he added.

Upon seeing the photo of Baby Badocdoc whose lips were sealed with a plaster, the pediatrician said that he already knew that it was intended to put in place the pacifier.

“It has been there for a long time. Diba ang ubang parents nga nanggawas karon kay dugay na nga incidents? So, why do you think nga wala magsaba ang ubang parents, because they found out nga it was not offensive,” he said.

He said that Maternity House should have not keep on practicing the taping since the DOH has released a directive. There are, however, situations that a pacifier can be used. According to him, premature baby can be given a pacifier.

The doctor explained that plastering a pacifier into the mouth is not harmful to the baby.

“Dili man ihugot pod ang plaster, dili na maka-harm. One of the instances are ang ilang breathing very fast, so butangan og pacifier to slow down the breathing,” he said, adding that when putting plasters, one side must be loosened so as not to harm the newborn.

It was earlier reported that Jasmine Badocdoc, mother of the first taped baby said that she and her live-in partner Ryan Noval, would not pursue legal charges against the hospital had the attending nurse explained that the tape was to put in place the pacifier.

Since the attending nurse allegedly told Jasmine that the tape was to prevent her baby from crying, she was outraged.

“Violation gyud na kung moingon gi-plasteran kon saba kaayo imong baby,” the doctor said.

“We’ve been talking about the incident since it first came out, we are sympathetic sa Maternity. Pero they denied it. The person who talked to the mother, wala gyud ni-explain og tarong nga ang plaster is for the pacifier,” he added.

He said that the public should not be judgmental about the incident. “Before they reach any conclusion, they have to research first,” he said.

He added that no medical personnel want to interfere with the incident since it already gained negative feedbacks from the public.

Meanwhile, all agencies under the Regional Subcommittee for Welfare of Children are given until today to submit their evaluation report on the incident.

All evaluation reports will be collated for the interagency fact-finding team’s resolution. (FREEMAN)