United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My child has lbpi and has severe Scapular winging-read on these boards that Wheel barrel walking helps. What exactly is this?

Wheel barrel walking is when you hold your childs legs up and he/she walks with their arms and hands on the floor.
Our specialist recommends this for Mariella. He said it will make her stronger and help with the Post Op recovery. (she is 10 months Post Op)
I have read from other mothers in the past that this is something to avoid so it may be a debate among BPI moms. In my experience with Ella's injury this is a great exercise for her/us to do. Talk to your doc to see what he says about it. It depends on each individual injury also.
~Krista~

Krista, I remember too hearing a debate about this - but our therapist recommended it and my child gained lots of strength - our family made it in to a fun thing nightly and the girls would try to race while my husband and I held up their legs by their ankles. I don't even think that my daughter realized that we were trying to strengthen her arm because her little sister was right in there doing it too. Took years to work up for her to have the strength for wheel barreling though. Best ask your specialist.
Christy

the dr. that is now treating Richard beleives that wheel barrow walking contributed to further agravating his winging problem and posterior subluxation - the weight bearing should be done only to the extent that the strucures like the scapula can Hold in place properly -otherwise it further stretched out the already too weak and distended muscles between his scapula and actually made the situation worse - we do weight bearing now with his hands on arms of a chair and pushing himself up so the weight bears through the arms and shoulders but doesn't make him wing - this way I can also give him feed back to keep more weight on his legs if it looks like the shoulder isn't able to hold his weight. Another way is to put the bulk of his weight on a footstool with wheels or a ball and move the body back so that enough of the body weight is supported by the ball or stool so that it doesn't push him into a wing - , it may be that your child could benefit from TES the scapular muscles first to get them strong enough to be able to benefit from these exercises first. I think the Dr. we are working with was really right for Richard because after years of therapy this is the first real improvement in the shoulder winging we have seen and he is gaining new strength and ranges with the new ideas and techniques we are using. There are ways to gain strength that don't cause further problems - of course it depends on the individual and how their muscles are balancing out - but there may be grounds for caution.

That is interesting to me b/c Ella still has major issues with scapular winging. Although her doctor knows about this issue he still recommends wheel barrel walking. hmmmmm??

Krista , that is interesting because I have had the same advice in times past, but I think there is a newer and better way now to get things strengthened up and doing a variety of different treatments and doing them all in the right sequence at the right time - if you want to look into this more it is Dr.Pape who has been giving us the new direction we needed to see Richard get some victory over these problems that we seemed stuck with for years - she is holding conferences this year to talk about all the new approaches and how to pull it all together into a plan that will actually produce desired results - I hope I don't sound pushy but you know how it is when you are excited when you have found something that really does work you want all your friends to have a chance to try these things too in case it is the help that they need as well. You can find about the conferences on the tascnetwork.net.

We have also been told that wheelbarrow walking is too strenuous on the all ready unstable joint and not to do it. Crawling is a much better weight bearing exercise in that the child's weight is evenly distributed and does not cause the shoulder to give in. I would think twice about doing this exercise. Just my opinion.
Karrie

Just my opinion....
People, in general, were not meant to walk on their hands. Think of the stress on your elbows and shoulders, they are not built like your knees or hips. Try wheel-barreling yourself. It puts stress on "normal" joints, just think what it does to a joint that is already compromised due to the BPI.

Matt's Dad, I do understand exactly what you are saying - it could put undo stress on the shoulder - but all injuries are different and for some it might help strengthen the shoulder (like in our case). I'm thinking that people aren't meant to crab walk - like they ask the kids to do in PE, or people aren't meant to do handstands, flips, head stands or summersalts either probably I guess, but if you think about it - it helps to strengthen certain muscles that maybe you would not have used unless you thought of ways to use them - and my child's shoulder and arm strength did improve after our therapist suggested this - her arms were muscular - but I do realize and agree with you that it is not for all and could possibly not help but hurt them - in our case it helped.
Christy