Promoting mobility in medically fragile infants and children Mats for Milestones

Mats for Milestones raised funds to purchase enough play mats for every patient in the CVICU at Phoenix Children's Hospital. 1 out of every 101 newborns in the US is born with congenital heart disease (CHD.) The most fragile of these will often spend the first several weeks to months of their life in the hospital (and often in the ICU.) We also know that infants and children with CHD often have some degree of developmental delay. We wanted to increase to variety of physical, occupational, and speech therapy interventions we could introduce to the infants and children during their hospitalization. When infants and children have access to a play mat, they use different muscles than they do while in an isolette, crib, or bed. In addition, families engage differently. We see increased bonding on these "oases of normalcy" in an otherwise very abnormal environment.

We set out to purchase 10 more play mats. Thanks to all the generosity, we were able to purchase 15!