An Eva Update

I mentioned here earlier that Eva isn't walking yet at 16 months, and that her pediatrician wanted us to have her evaluated by a physical therapist. Yesterday was her first session, and I'm so very glad we went.

The therapist was wonderful-- kind, personable, and Eva took to her right away. She basically put out some toys and watched Eva play with them (to do a general motor skills evaluation), and then asked us some questions and "chatted" with Eva herself to do an evaluation on her social skills. The therapist also complimented us on how verbal she is, which made me like her even more!

After leading her through some exercises that were sneakily disguised as games in order to observe her (attaching rubber balls up high on a mirror to encourage her to stand and reach for them, having a frog hop just out of her reach along a bench to encourage her to cruise), she examined her hips and legs and had her walk behind a push toy.

The results: The therapist thinks that Eva's calf muscles are weak, and that her knees are a bit hyper-loose because of all the "W" sitting she does. Word to the wise: if you ever see your kid sitting on her rear with her knees splayed out like this--

Warning: Gratuitously cute baby picture used for illustrative purposes



--take the picture, and then reposition her! It encourages hyper-flexibility of the knee joints, and some inflexibility is required in order for muscles to work in concert and support a stand, if I understand it correctly. I was mentioning this to my friend AmFam, and she recommended that I read the book Why Motor Skills Matter, which I am definitely going to get the next time I go to work. Apparently, kids sometimes gravitate towards this type of sitting position because it's such a stable base-- but it's hard on the knees and compensates for the instability they feel when sitting the "proper" way.

The therapist also noted that Eva curls her toes and sickles her left foot while walking in order to give herself some stability and compensate for her muscle weakness. I'd noticed the sickling while walking her, and had wondered if that was indicative of something. The bottom line, however, is that she doesn't think there's anything specifically "wrong" with her, which was a HUGE relief!

We're going to be doing a therapy session every other Friday morning, and we have some exercises we're to do at home, such as encouraging her to climb stairs while we hold her hand.

I'm relieved it's just a muscular strength issue, which we can work on. I must admit, though, feeling a pang or two while we were at the park yesterday, and babies at least two months younger than her were giggling and toddling around in the grass. I so badly want her to be able to do that, too. But we'll get there! In the mean time, I somehow have to convince her to try stepping up onto a stair, rather than attempting to crawl up like usual and then melting down when I prevent it....