United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

My daughter is now 15 months old. She was born w/lobpi. Her therapists(both PT and OT) feel she is on target for her age and have discontinued their services. She does very well. I still see weakness,especially at night. Is this the normal course of events. Is there something to follow through with after this. Just like to hear from some of you out there with children who are "better" and what is in store for our Jamie. Happy New Year!! Terri

Hi there glad to hear your child is recovering so well! I have two children that were bpi, the 2nd did completely recover - no weakness, no limited ranges, the 1st however was really well recovered with some "minor residual weakness in the deltoids" and we were just told to keep him acctive- now that he is 13 years old, we know by hind sight, that minor weakness was something we should have kept an eye on and continued to treat - and be seen by a true specialist through the years - his range and weakness got gradually worse and caused a subluxation of the shoulder over time - oh so gradual - I wish we had known different because, had I gotten going on some other therapies and known to stay on top of it, his shoulder would have been better off today - so celebrate the recovery but always keep an eye on it with a proffessional check up regularly - we are using techniques now that help the residual weakness immensely,( "regular physio" was only able to get us to a certain point and we weren't able to get past certain weaknesses before that we now are)- we learned these techniques from Dr.Pape - addressing the residual weakness may be more important than they think because over time it can cause trouble. TES helped us inconjunction with more physio and massage and splinting to start to overcome some of these residual problems. Ask Dr.Pape on her forum/message board www.tascnetwork.net She also has conferences to teach about what to do for maximum recovery and I wonder if you have not tried these things yet if they may be helpful to get rid of that last bit of weakness.

Happy New Year Terri,
My son just "graduated" from therapy too. He is 19months. Although we are going to continue with therapy maybe once a month or as needed - it feels like something is missing our weekly routine. His therapist suggested several at home excerises and has encouraged me to call if I am need of any more advice. She advised us to use any toys that require two hands and that the child can push and pull on. We got him a Wiggles Accordian for Christmas. Besides driving us crazy with the noise, it seems to keep his left are active!!! Good Luck

Get your little one into swimming. Swimming is one of the greatest lifetime bpi exercises.

thank you for your response. I checked out your site---what a wealth of information!! No we haven't tried any of these things because we were told she was responding fine to therapy and she was doing the best she would do...I will bring this info to our next app. with her specialist. Thanks again.

Thanks for the swimming advice!I had heard this before but haven't really looked into any actual classes just us splashing around in the summer!! Thanks

we were advised the same thing about toys and also anything that encourages her to pull with her affectd arm ie.. theraputty and puzzles with pegs. Congrats on your sons graaduation and best of luck to all!

My son is 6 and has been done with "THERAPY" since he was two. I really think just to keep that arm moving and challenging the child is all you can do. I do things to my son all the time to get his affected arm moving. He finally realizes this and get angry but he gets over it. Two handed toys are awesome. I bought my son a leapster for Christmas it is a hand held educational game with buttons on the right and left. The other day I caught him moving the fingers on his right hand like he never has before. Good luck

Physical therapy was the only BPI treatment available to me as a child. I was in formal PT at an orthopedic clinic until I was 10 or 11 but what I remember most are the sessions on the dining room table at home. The therapist taught my parents stretching and strength exercises and they were a consistent ritual to supplement the formal sessions. Swimming was also part of the formal PT time. I learned to swim in the clinic's pool.

John P. (65, ROBPI)

I agree that at least get a once every 4-6 weeks thing going because it is very important to see to it that the muscles do not become atrophied from non-use. once the muscles become atrophied it is extremely difficult to get them working even a little. I was never in formal therapy until this summer and it has taken me 9 months to even be able to lift a cup to eye level to put it away in the cubbord. With time muscles only gets worse if you dont strengthen them. Mine are starting to come back but because of non-use I have lost my lumbricals(small muscle in the palm of of the hand that makes it possible to make a table top, nuckles bent at 90 degree angle). They are to atrophied to even target with e-stim. So I probably wont get the use of that muscle back. My lack of formal therapy was probably due to lack of information because I was injured at birth almost 18 years ago now, and there was not the information out there that there is today.

So I would strongly suggest at least get some sort of monitored program going.
Good luck with your situation,
Amy