Making Steps Toward the First Step

Our big boy turned one this month. Though I wrote a letter to him for his first birthday expressing my pride in him, I still find it difficult to sufficiently put it into words. He is a hard worker. He doesn't like doctors and therapists messing with him and making him do things with his body that feel uncomfortable to him. But I think on some level he really does understand that he is deriving benefit from everything he has gone through because he tends to maintain a tolerance that I find myself envying.

His newest challenge is in the form of a "supine stander," which will strengthen Liam's legs and teach him to become more comfortable with standing on his own. As you may recall, his legs had been in and out of casts (Ponseti method) for the first 8 months of his life. The primary objective of the casts was to straighten out his clubbed feet. They also served to initiate mobility in his ankle and knee joints which gives long-term benefit to his arthrogryposis.

As of now, we are still struggling with Liam being able to sit up completely on his own, unsupported. Also, we don't expect him to learn to crawl because his knee joints are still too stiff to bend fully. Now we are teaching him to stand, using the stander, hoping he will someday take the initiative to stand on his own; and eventually take his first step. Seeing how well he tolerates the stander, I believe we are well on our way in the right direction.

Playtime and Other Things

Just as the last several months, this past month has flown and now we are few days away from Liam's 10th month birthday! I have been witness to a steady increase in his alertness and perception of his surroundings. In therapy, Liam has been introduced to toys that create a "cause and effect" scenario. For example, when he presses a button or a switch, the toy will make a loud cheerful sound or release another toy such as a ball. His success in activating such toys is lately met with a delighted screech. It's so unexpected, I haven't been able to catch it on video yet.

Further to Liam's success with his toys is that he is even more motivated to learn to sit upright unsupported. This is also somewhat unexpected. After many months of castings on both of his legs, we expected Liam to be further behind schedule in this milestone. In this, he is proving to be an overachiever and in a good way!

And speaking of milestones, we have accepted that Liam will likely learn to walk without ever crawling due to the restrictions in his elbow and shoulder joints. However, he is rolling around all over the place. So we now have a large play mat for him to roll all over to his heart's content. He loves it!

As a last note regarding toys, he particularly favors any that he can easily get a grip with his hands as pictured
below. His favorite is a rubber ball with holes all around it so he can hold on to it and move with it. It provides an incredible stretch to his fingers, hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders that he does all by himself! So, to any others out there who know children with arthrogryposis in the upper extremities: this toy should be high on your list!