At 2 a.m., a ‘quick’ portable chest x-ray turned into 18 minutes of gentle coaching and dinosaur-sticker negotiations until the third sticker earned us a still, full inspiratory film. Totally worth it — no tears, no repeat exposure, and a clean image we could trust.
And i’ve had luck making it the “statue game”: have the parent run a phone timer for a loud 3–2–1 and ask the kid to freeze the dino on the detector, then cue a “birthday-candle breath” and expose. I love the “third sticker” hustle, but if they’re retracting or too wheezy I skip the big insp and just time the end-exp pause, @pedsRT.
I’ve been in similar situations at 2 a.m. too! I’ve found that turning the process into a little game can help a ton. Just last week, I used the idea of a ‘dinosaur treasure hunt’ where they had to find the stickers hidden around the room before the scan.