busted mouth, again!!! Any advice appreciated

[Georgeann P]

My one year old son with right BPI keeps falling on his mouth and has busted his mouth, head, eyes, and face so many times I have lost count. It is awful! He has been walking for almost 2 months but when he falls he is not as able to catch himself everytime. I have padded everything but the kitchen floor (his worst enemy) and If I could figure out how to do that I would. I make sure he has either has bare feet or his shoes on to help him but he just seems to trip over his own feet sometimes. Will his teeth survive? Does anyone have any other ideas or words of wisdom?

[Jamie MA]

The only advice I can give is keep working on his reflexes. Sitting him on a giant ball and rocking him side to side, front and back and show him where his hands should be when his body falls one way or the other (this works best with two people)
TJ is going to be 3 in April and still can't seem to walk without falling. We've been told his balance issues are caused by his arm posture and decreased nerve sensation on the injured side of his body (he doesn't know where his body is in proximity to objects on his injured side)it's something we can work on but most likely will be an issue always.
I can't count the number of times, I've scheduled to have professional photos taken only to have to cancel for bruises, cuts, scrapes etc all over! I'm still working on it since November! It's become quite the family joke- New Years Eve he managed to make it a whole 4 minutes into the new year before falling and hitting his head on the coffee table. It's just another side effect to this injury.
I hope your o/t or p/t can help give you more ideas and really focus on this for you- we started with reflexes somewhere around 6 mos with TJ mostly for weight bearing but to at least to start him off.

[admin]

My son is 3 1/2 years and also falls constantly. Ask your ot and pt what you can do. We have had broken lips, stitches and constantly are full of bruises. The back of his affected hand looks like scar heaven. I know what you are going through. I can tell you though that he hasn't broken a tooth yet.....but as I say that I knock on wood

Good Luck

[Kristie]

The only thing I would suggest to combat the kitchen floor is a gate to keep him off of it! Ian has just started walking and I too am concerned with how the BPI will affect it. It is really depressing when I think about how much of his life this injury changes!
Kristie

[francine]

yep - maia still falls - although she falls less now that she has orthotics I have to admit. You got some very good posts here with advice... there was point where lou wanted to put a helmet on Maia...if she would have seriously hurt her head I guess we would have given it some thought but I'm grateful we didn't have to...we just moved all the pointy furniture out and put futon mats on the floor - like a thin futon mat and then her PT and OT both worked on learning how to protect herself when falling. We did the ball thing like Jamie suggested...

Good luck and hopefully this too shall pass,
francine

[christy]

We did the ball thing too and she still falls but it gets less and less. One thing that really helped was letting her practice levels--there was border around the flower bed (sorta like a rail road tie) that is just like a few inches high and she went "up and down" forever. That really seemed to help the most for some reason...maybe with learning the balance issues but also when she went to tottering the next level wasn't quite so far away and she kind of started cathcing herself. Although, if she is playing and running she goes flying--the reflex just isn't quick enough for that one.

[marymom]

(((((georgeann)))))
Max used to do that...he walked around with bruises on his face- each time he fell and screamed in my mind I knew, I just know, it was helping to kick his reflexes in-
I think as the other posts suggested -just keep working on his reflexes-Max used to hate that big ball-we did crazy buggy rides in the grocery store cart(well we spend alot of time at Publix with 5 mouths to feed)and in the stroller, positioning himn so he is safely sitting and with his arms on the bars in front or to the side- and just roll the cart so he leans- he will fall over in the cart and have to push back up, but you would do it only hard enough so that he could begin to catch himself or hopefully compensate with the other arm- mostly, Max just used to fall over at first...
it gets better, it really does- They usually begin to use the reflex, some coming in more than others depending on their injury- but I want to share with you that it is possible with alot of reflex stimulation for those reflexes to be so bad that at first he is falling alot like that but then in a mere 6 months he will be sososo much better.
...and just think-if those arm reflexes dont come in atleast he will be a better walker by then-
I naturally would try and catch Max when he fell and would watch for potentially dangerous situatuions but on the other hand- I tried to be careful not to overprotect and I tried to continuously have himn in a situation where he was stimulating and testing his reflexes in a natural environment- like doing a real life activity- walking,riding a bike, a buggy, whatever-
blessings,mary

[admin]

My 3 year old fell and keeps falling so many times I lost count. He has broke two teeth and had to have pulled, he has had a hairline skull fracture because he feel backwards on his injured side and could not catch himself, and many small falls. It is very frustrating and scary. I just try to keep an eye on him but to follow him around all the time is impossible! Good luck
Rhonda

[Kathleen]

Georgeann
I am right obpi
Falling is a problem... I did lots of balance walking... walked on curbs near the street... walked on boards like balance beams... walked with a book on my head and arms extended...

I will still fall and forget to put my right arm out and besides it is not strong enough to catch myself.
I just fell up the stairs... and was so annoyed that I did not even try to catch myself.
All of the balance practice my Mom did really helped I rarely trip or fall. I think dance lessons helped too!

I am not aware if someone or something is on the right side of me... hence I will poke people with my elbow I will hit my elbow on the door knobs... (Ouch! I hate that one) after writing to many of the other adult obpi it seems that many of us have the same problem with body boundary... it seems to be missing....

I know that I had a great deal of pushing to keep my arm moving… but I don’t think that could help with my perception of where my arm is in relationship to people and objects.

I think all of the practice really helped... Unless you know me real well you would not know I have had to work on balance... I used to be full of cuts bumps and bruises...as a child... I used up more bandages... but with all of the help from my family I have good balance... I am careful because I have to be... But I ran climbed jumped and was in general a very active child... It will take time but with practice balance will get better...


I hope the baby soon becomes steady on those little feet…

Kath

[admin]

My son had a constant bruise on his forehead from the same thing! He was always falling, and unable to catch himself. We bought a sport headband (available at many shoe stores like footlocker). An adult one fit fine. It took a day or two to get used to wearing it, but it did cut down on the bruising. If it is any consolation, he is 20 months old and his face looks fine now, and he doesn't seem to have caused any permanent damage. (Our next step was a bike helmet, but fortunately we didn't need to resort to that). To this day in the grocery when I get frozen vegetables he pulls them out of the cart and puts them on his head!