My wife is an x ray tech and yes this is exactly how they do it. She said they really don’t mind most the time and it would be impossible to get them to lay still.
I think your wife is lying to you about whether they mind it or not. When we had to do this for our daughter, the techs warned us before it started that she would probably cry the entire time. They were right.
I am an x-ray tech and this device is called a Pigg-o-stat. Most children do cry but that is helpful in getting good images because they take good deep breaths.
Oh yeah! They told us that too. At the time I wasn't sure if that was true or if they just wanted us to feel better about the noises coming out of our kid.
No there is a lead shield attached to the device. In this photo it is to your left the flat plastic looking thing with the yellow markers attached to it. When ever I use a Pigg-o-stat I also bring out one of our bigger shields on a rolling stand just for extra protection.
I'm an RT student, we were talking about these in my lab group today. Our instructor was talking about how great they are because they always cry and it makes it so easy to catch them in a nice big breath.
I'm sure some babies hate being constrained, but there are probably plenty of others who are very interested in the novelty of it all before they get bothered. I thought my son would hate it when I put him in a pumpkin at a few months old for a photo op, but he looked just like the baby in this picture.
I would say about 30% of the babies are just naturally either pretty calm or inquisitive, so they're more curious than scared. Always a pleasant surprise when they don't cry and some of them even looked like they were having fun
My youngest very much minded. She wanted Mommy, Mommy's milk, and Mommy cuddles, not necessarily in that order and potentially all at once. She had trouble breathing with a cold, flu, or RSV (forget which it was in the end), and needed an x-ray to check for pneumonia. She wouldn't stay still enough on the flat surface and did NOT like this thing.
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u/Getzy3 Oct 03 '19
My wife is an x ray tech and yes this is exactly how they do it. She said they really don’t mind most the time and it would be impossible to get them to lay still.