Fitting CF Into Your Life Every Day^TM 

This interactive, animated program was written with help from a panel of teens with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) to help other teens and pre-teens ages 10 to 15 as they begin to take on more responsibility for managing their disease and their treatments while still enjoying all the things they love to do.

The program was designed to help teens better understand core CF management principles, and features animated depictions of the lungs to help young people understand the importance of lung clearance techniques, medications, enzymes and diet. Fitting CF Into Your Life Every Day also offers an interactive question and answer section, where adolescents can find advice and tips from older teens with CF about challenges they may face.

The program features three main sections:  

Breathing

The Breathing section focuses on the lungs and how airway clearance techniques such as Chest PT, and the use of aerosols and inhalers and antibiotics clear mucus and fight germs.  The program features lung animations, and demonstrates how the lungs are positively impacted by each of these treatments.  The highlight of this section is animation that explicitly demonstrates the dangers of skipping treatments, such as mucous build-up and infection.

Eating

In the eating section, the program focuses on the importance of eating high-calorie meals, taking in extra salt, taking enzymes and eating extra snacks and supplements.  Animation of the digestive system demonstrates the need for enzymes, and outlines the importance of talking about any digestive troubles with your health care team.

CF Q&A

The Q & A section addresses realistic challenges that young patients encounter in coping with CF on a daily basis: body image issues, questions from friends on whether CF is contagious, pressure from parents to eat, how to handle coughing spells and realistic solutions for fitting treatments into a normal, active life.  We encourage users to be creative in making time for treatments so they don’t miss out on the important stuff: social opportunities, sports and school life. 

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To learn more about this program, please email your question to info@starlight.org.