Is lifting arm to mouth while sitting up a good sign?

[Mandie]

Trent's Mom, just remember that every child and every injury is different! Not every kid ends up needing surgery. Sarah is 3 and no surgery for her. Thats what is good about this place, all different types of advice!

Mandie

[JessicasMom]

That's a fantastic sign of good things to come! My daughter Jessica is 21 months old. When she was 6 weeks old, he had finger and wrist movement and nothing else and our neurologist was disappointed and said he would have expected to see something by now. He called her injury "significant". She was making small movements every week. Soon she could lay on her back and lift her arm. I took what seemed like forever before she could get her hand to her mouth in a "semi-upright" position like in her bouncy seat, but it DID happen when she was almost 13 weeks old. Soon after that, she was doing it regularly. She still had significant internal rotation and deficits at 9 months old. She was even recommended to have 2 surgeries at that time (and later after seeing her progress, the surgeon agreed no surgery was necessary).

I can tell you that today she is nearly 100% fully recovered without surgery. She was discharged from therapy at 18 months and no longer needs to follow up with the surgeon or neurologist. It is almost impossible to tell she has an injury. Her ONLY deficit now is in supination and I would say she can supinate about 90% of the way. She can hold change in her BPI hand with her elbow down at her side. She does not favor one arm over the other and swings her BPI arm when she runs.

Do not be discouraged, there is hope! I was very overwhelmed in the beginning, and while every child is different, and the potential for recovery is different with each child, I did not hear that many positive stories.

I hope your little one will also have a wonderful recovery! Email me if I can answer any questions for you: shellie1@patmedia.net

[Trent's mom]

Michelle-
Thanks so much for your input. I hope Trent follows Jessica's path of recovery-so far it sounds similar. Excuse my ignorance, but what is supination? That is a term I have not heard through all of this.
Thanks-
Anita

[Kath]

Michelle
Thanks for posting all this positive information. It is so great to hear that some children make such great progress. I am so happy for you and for Jessica. I appreciate reading such good news.
Kath

[LisaL]

Congratulations on the new movement. I have to agree with everyone here. Every little bit of movement counts towards a better recovery.

The cookie test is a great test. We used the dum dum lollipops instead. That was Hananh's first taste of one around 4 monhs. She was so happy to taste that sugar. She kept trying real hard to get it to her mouth.

Make sure when you do the test that you hold there elbow down at their side so they are truly using there bicep muscle. Hannah would compensate so well, she could get her hand to her mouth with ease but when you would hold her elbow at her side she couldn't do it. She did have primary at 6 months and Mod Quad at 11 months. She is 95% recovered, you would never know she was injured now. Dr. Nath is a great doctor.

Lisa

[katep]

I've seen the instructions to hold the child's arm at their side for the cookie test. But I think sometimes if they are internally rotated, subluxed or dislocated in the shoulder, this guarantees the biceps can't work. Joshua was so internally rotated by 7-8 months that even though he had good bicep flexion by then, it was physically impossible for him to flex his elbow with his arm down at his side (his hand would "run into" his body!) Sometimes the child needs to raise their arm up to the side just so the hand has a clear path to their mouth. If the shoulder is too internally rotated, the biceps are also put into a very weakened position mechanically, even though they may be well-innervated.

Try this yourself: rotate your arm in at the shoulder and then try to flex your elbow. You'll notice that flexing the elbow brings the arm into collision with your body, as well as the flexion feeling very weak. The biceps require the shoulder to be at least neutral rotation to work effectively. Once Joshua had the capsule and subscap release, his internal rotation posture was eliminated, and his biceps now work "normally".

That's the hard thing about this injury... for each thing that doesn't "work", there are so many different explanations that all require different solutions (nerve surgery vs tendon transfers vs simple releases). Sometimes it is just a simple matter of everything being in the wrong position so the muscles can't do their work.

Kate

[JessicasMom]

Supination is turning the palm up, like you do when someone
gives you change (or m&ms like Jessica likes to get!)

I pray your little one has a great recovery, sounds to me like he's doing terrific already!

Michelle