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Conference moira::parenting_v3

Title:Parenting
Notice:READ 1.27 BEFORE WRITING
Moderator:CSC32::DUBOIS
Created:Wed May 30 1990
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1364
Total number of notes:23848

1325.0. "Premie infant development milestones" by MEMIT::GIUNTA () Mon Mar 09 1992 10:26

As most of you know, I have twins who were born prematurely at 28 weeks.  They
are developing fine and are now 10 months old (7 months corrected).  Jessica
is doing quite well and does a very nice commando-style crawl to get wherever
she wants.  She sits OK if we sit her up, but she prefers to be crawling around.
Brad, on the other hand, has the typical premature baby's high muscle tone and
doesn't relax very much.  He rolls to wherever he wants to be, and has recently
started to crawl by using both his hands and legs, though he usually ends up
pushing himself backwards, but he can crawl forward about 5-6 crawl-steps at
a time.  He, however, won't sit at all.  He arches his back every time and
just won't relax enough to sit.  The physical therapist recommends trying to
relax him first, but relaxing is not something he wants to do.  What I've 
been doing is to have him sit on my leg while we read the nightly bedtime
story, and that seems to be working out OK.  And we put him in his highchair
while we eat dinner and he has a cookie since he loves eating and we thought
that sitting may be encouraged if it's associated with a positive experience
like eating, both at snacktime and when he has his meals.  But he even arches
his back in his highchair.

I was wondering if anyone else who had a premature baby with such high muscle
tone has run into this, and may have some pointers on what else I can try.

I suspect he'll manage to sit by himself by the time he starts school, but I'd
sure like to be able to do more right now to encourage him to do it.  Ideas?

Regards,
Cathy
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1325.1get him comfortable!STUDIO::POIRIERMon Mar 09 1992 11:3226
    Cathy,
    
    Shannon had a bad case of "premie tone" too!  I suppose if she had a
    twin progressing faster I would have paid more attention to it.  But, I
    didn't, and since she was my first, I just did what the therapist told
    me to do:
    
    1.  Curl the baby inward.  this is suppose to get them comfortable in
    the fetal position.  (premies are more comfortable on their backs
    because their intubation allowed better air flow that way)  We made it
    fun by making Shannon "eat her toes".
    
    2. Cradle, Cradle, Cradle!  I remember Shannon's therapist saying this
    over and over again!  When you cradle a baby they feel secure and guess
    what?  They are in that curled inward position!
    
    Our concern was whether or not we were dealing with tone or CP.  It was
    hard to say for the first 6 months or so, and with a grade 4 IVH we
    were scared.  Now we are pretty sure it was just tone.  
    
    My advice is to listen to your therapist, and try not to compare the
    two babies -  Brad will come along at his own pace.  Sounds like both
    babies are doing well!!!
    
    -best regards!
    Beth
1325.2thanks -- I'll give that a tryMEMIT::GIUNTAMon Mar 09 1992 12:0213
Re .1

Thanks, Beth.  I'll try more cradling and cuddling and see if that helps.
At least I know that Brad loves to be held and cradled, so he may relax in
that position.  If this were Jessica having the problem, cradling would be the
last thing I could do since she hates being held and cuddled (I thought all
babies were supposed to love being held?).  I am glad, though, that my babies
are so different because it makes it easier to treat them as individuals and
not as part of a set.

Thanks for the advice.  I'll keep you posted on his progress.

Cathy
1325.3more ideasAPACHE::FRIEDRICHSKeep'm straight 'n levelMon Mar 16 1992 17:0025
    Our son Richard is also a preemie with high muscle tone.  Our therpist
    gave us this list of positions to try:
    
    When he is lying on his stomach, put a roll of some kind under/around
    his rear end to keep his legs tucked under him.
    
    You sit on the sofa with your feet up and rest him on your legs with
    his feet on your stomach, head on your knees. This is also a great
    position to start language skills, as they are looking at your face. I
    found this very effective.  
    
    With Richard, I found that alot of his tension was/is in his shoulders.
    I would take his shoulder blades and run my hands from his spine, down
    his arms, to bring his hands together. This relaxed him alot, even if
    for a short time.
    
    Then we also did daily stretches of the back and legs, which I'm sure
    you are aware of.
    
    I hope some of these help.  Give us a buzz if you need any more info as
    Richard is almost 3 yrs and we've been through alot of similar things.
    
    cheers