Caring for a Central Line at Home

Your child’s medical condition requires him/her to have a central line. Although maintaining the central line requires special care, you can manage it within the comforts of your own home. These videos explain how your child’s central line works, and the key steps needed to keep the central line functioning properly and to avoid infection. Please remember, these videos can guide you in your home care but they do not replace direct teaching from your child’s health care providers. Please be sure to ask questions of your child’s clinicians to make sure you fully understand the steps and process.

Central Line Care Instruction

At Dana-Farber/Boston Children's, we understand that families may find central line care daunting at first. That’s why we have a team of expert nurses who work one-on-one with family members – parents, teenagers, or other caregivers – to carefully teach each step of the process. Called Team LINE (“Learning to be Independent ‘N Empowered”), these nurses demonstrate the line care process, answer questions, and coach family members as they practice the process with their child.

Team LINE can provide central line care coaching while your child is inpatient at Boston Children’s Hospital, during outpatient care at Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund Clinic, or in some cases at your home.

Central Line Care Videos