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I hope that you are all doing well. Sorry about not being around much. The summer has been beautiful and I have not been spending any more time on my computer than needed for work. I am sure I will get back into it once school kicks up in September.
I do think of you all often and enjoy reading what your kiddos are up to!
I am looking for some advice from you Mommy's with older little ones. Reichen is now able to transition to sitting and he often transitions directly into the W sitting.
We are constantly giving him the verbal cues to straighten his leg and then straightening them for him. I have talked to our physiatrist and OT and they recommend that we do not have him sit in this position since it can cause issues with the hips.
Did you see the tendency to W sit? What was the most effective way to stop it? Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks!
Since it has been a while -- here is a recent pic of the little dude:
6 comments:
Hey Kiera!
Reichan is SO SO SO cute!
MY cutie, Ellie, is also a chronic W-sitter. Sigh. Long before she was independently sitting, we were told that we could expect her to prefer the W position because it required the least amount of trunk strength. And Ellie is VERY weak in her trunk. She began independently w-sitting back in fall of last year. We were told by doctors and therapists that as long as she didn't keep the position for long periods of time (10 min. or more without moving), the benefits outweighed the negatives. This is the only position where she can freely play with her hands and feel completely secure. Like you, we keep reminding her to "tuck her feet under her bum", which would equal more heel sitting than w-sitting (upon suggestion of her therapists). She NEVER stays in w-sitting for longer than a few minutes at a time (she's constantly reaching for things, thus turning the W into more of a high kneeling position).
This said, Ellie's left hip looks terrible on x-rays and they expect her to need surgery within a year. BUT, her left hip has looked bad for two years now, well before she began w-sitting, so I'm not sure how closely those two corrolate.
I guess the only "advice" I have is that you're not alone, and if you happen to find a good tactic for preventing the W-sitting, let me know!
Ya wana know what we have been told over a million times? (but, hey- who's counting?)
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO W SITTING LOGEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Who's told us: DT, PT, OT, SLP, Neuro, Physiatrist (I just buthered that word), I could go on but you get that part.
His PT was the one who sat down with me and drew a diagram of why we DON'T let our kids sit "w". Wish I woulda kept it for times like these.
When Logen transitions into W, we A) pull his knees together and make sure his toes are pointed and are directly under his bootay.
B) Or completely alter the sitting and make him go indian style- Logen modified of course.
If my video camera's cord hadn't been lost I'd video tape Logen and post it. I can do on my real camera, you just dont get sounds that way. Keira- let me know if you think any of my info helps. (I've already taken my ambiem, so I may read this tomorrow going WTH?) I would be happy to ask our PT tomorrow about all the badness of W sitting. I know she have me muscle groups, tendons, etc that were affected by this sitting. Which, in case you haven't heard before is a big NO NO :) Blah, blah, blah- right???? Let me know if you want any more info! We are here to help each other out :)
Chrystie, my sweet honey :) If you want the info I am rambling on about in the above paragraphs- let me know :) I swear it'll make more sense off of ambien! ((( For anybody that wants to bash (for lack of a better word) my ambien. I do have a Rx for it, and I don't sleep w/o it. I swear i am not a druggie!!! :P )))
~ Jess
Yeeeeeaaaaahhhh.... bad bad bad... Hunter is awful. He simply won't even sit the regular way anymore :( But I have to let him W-sit at least some of the time because he needs the time to be able to play and build his trunk strength too. For awhile I was fixing his sit and nagging him all the time (he's just 15 months so verbal cues aren't working with him yet). But what would happen is that he'd stop playing and doing whatever he was doing and meltdown. So he wasn't getting any by-himself play time because mom was always fixing his sit. So now I let him do it sometimes. The PT isn't happy but she agreed for now that it's okay on a limited basis. We're hoping the AFO's we get tomorrow will make it harder for him to do and we won't have as big an issue with it. We'll see.
Anyway, one trick she showed me was to engage the gluteal muscles. You put a hand on each of his hips and then put your thumb right under the butt roll. Then push up like you're going to massage the butt roll. It forces them into a tall kneel and engages the glutes and the hamstrings and they more naturally come out of the W into a tall kneel. It was a nice change of pace for me than just re-positioning him every time and he tolerated that better than repositioning because it wasn't so much like mom just "picking" at him. It has helped his glutes a lot too actually.
Anyway, I'm scared to see how long this post will be, I'm rambling LOL Best of luck!! Let us know if you find another trick because I think there's a lot of us that fight this one...
Kristi
Malayna is a chronic W-sitter as well. She will "fix" her legs with verbal cues as well. She can sit "criss-cross-applesauce" and side sit too. She's starting to heel sit some too. I have not found a way to stop it completely, it's how our kiddos are most comfortable and stable. How can we fight that all the time? Sorry, I'm no help just letting you know you're sure not alone in this battle. Let us know if you find any great tricks.
Emma is not a huge W sitter--not a great sitter period, so I don't have any thoughts. But, my PT goes crazy when she does it at all.
Boy, that little man is growing fast, and he is a total cutie.
Thank you all for the feedback. I am glad to hear that we are not the only ones that are working with our LOs on this.
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