United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Alot of it seems like play, but I would watch and ask questions about how to stabilize the shoulder blade, how to get the arm in the right position for weight bearing. It reassured me that we were doing things at home correctly. Als our PT was always taking mearsurments for flexion, supination, extension and so forth. This helped to track progress or lack of when we were deciding about surgery. I beileve Rosalynn has a moderate injury. We did PT 2 times a week and OT once a week at this age.

My daughters only has formal therapy every 4-6 weeks, she is 13 months. Mainly due to not having a qualified PT in our area. At the BPI clinic we travel to (about 4 hours away), the doctors and therapists give us suggestions of things to work with her at home. I too call it "play" therapy, in which I work the exercises into her play time. For us it has been great, she keeps improving and the doctors are very happy with her recovery thus far and approve our "play" therapy. Like the other posts said before it is important to ask the advice of you doctor.

Tara

It sounds like your son is doing very well if he already supinating and touching his head at 4 months. You can probably scale back the therapy visits if that is what you want. I wouldn't stop completely, though, unless your doctor says so.

By the way, insurance will stop paying for the visits if they are not necessary, so I wouldn't worry about the doctor or therapist keeping you going longer than what is needed.

When Kailey was a month and a half old we decided to take her to an Osteopath in Toronto. My husband was in the 3rd year of the Osteopathic program so he had access to so very good practitioners. Prior to the treatment she couldn't lift her arm at all, she could move her fingers but that was all. One week after the treatment Kailey started to lift her arm. We continued with Osteopathic treatment for two years off and on after that first treatment. Kailey is 8 years old now, she can reach just above her head and she is learning to play baseball. She just finished a fun season of hockey. We continue to do therapy in her day to day activities, she hangs on the monkey bars, skips, etc. each thing she does keeps the arm in motion. This is what is working for Kailey. Good Luck

I guess the thing with the therapy that's frustrating is just that it really doesn't seem like they are doing that much. And b/c my son has recovered so much already, I don't know if that was b/c of the therapy or just what he was naturally going to recover. His rom is fine. He's not tight anywhere...the therapist has told me that. She said that his muscle tone is somewhat low compared to the other arm but that it's difficult to do strengthening exercises with a four month old. The only thing to do is weight baring (having him on his tummy) I don't need any special equipment for this and I feel like I could go less often. I don't want to completely quit going quite yet but I don't think we need to go every week. I'm going to talk to her about it this week at therapy. Thanks for all your advice.

That's great about his wonderful recovery so far. Just keep in mind that it can be the therapy sessions that are keeping him from getting tight. Sometimes a break from doing ROM or therapy can make the kids tighten up really fast. You are the mom so you know what's right, but I think therapy is very important during the early years and during growings years. Breaks are just as important, but mostly for the child if they seem to be in therapy and not cooperating well or if they are looking stressed about it. We have been in therapy since our daughter was 1 month old and we did take a couple of breaks. We were dismissed from formal therapy at one point, but just several months later we saw her specialist again and he said that she was tight and we needed to get back into formal therapy once again. Good luck with your decision. You can always take this break and go from there. You can get back into it at anytime.
~Krista~

Jake's Mom

Sarah has had a wonderful recovery too. The first year of her life we went to formal therapy like 4 times. Our PT showed us things that we could do at home, and we did them. Talk to your PT about showing you the exercises and how to do them.

Now of course, every kid is different, but asking won't hurt.

We go to PT on Sat. so I will talk to her about it then. I think I've kind of decided though that we will take a little break. The thing about being tight is that he NEVER has been tight. We don't even really do the stretches anymore...we haven't in a month probably and he's not tight. I think this is b/c he moves his affected just as much as he moves his unaffected arm just in different ways. He still tends to use his shoulder some to lift his arm rather than bending only at the elbow. This has gotten much better though and he is bending more and more. I am going to do baby swim this summer and I'm excited about that...I think it will be good for him in so many ways not just his arm. I think the resistance of the water should good for strenthening his muscles too.
I know this sounds strange, but I just don't want this injury to take over his life b/c he IS doing so well. I realize that some kids HAVE to go to therapy all the time, but I don't think he does right now. I am going to watch him closely and if I think he's regressing or has plateued(sp) then I can go back like so many of you have said.
We will just do these exercises(weight bearing) at home. It's so hard to know if you are making the right decision but I gotta go with my gut here. Thanks to all of you that have given me advice. I really appreciate it.
Shari

I have a 4yr old who has had a great recovery with no surgery. However, I have always gone to OT or PT on a regular basis b/c I feel it is very important.(but like Krista said, I do believe breaks are needed sometimes) These trained professionals know more than we do. Most people look at my daughter and cant even tell what arm was injured but I have learned thru the years all the compensatory movements she uses. I feel that if I had stopped going to therapy, I would think she was doing everything the correct way. It is our OT who shows me every time how to change these bad habit.

Our daughter went 3 times a week from 3 weeks untill she was 4. Now she is down to twice a week, and she is 7. I flet the same way when she was a baby, but the important thing is they can see things we sometimes cant. I would constantly get new exercises to do at home to help with whatever new issue she was having. However, this wasn't untill the third therpaist. I took her from place to place looking for somebody that either knew what Brachial Plexus was (nobody did) or was willing to learn as ended up being the case with our therapist.