BABY BLUE’S SUCCESS STORY
BABY BLUE’S SUCCESS STORY
There is a baby with fearful eyes who avoided touching except her mother and there was a mother with fearful eyes who was tired, hopeless. Because there are several negative experiences for them regarding their Down syndrome challenge. They really have sad stories to find the right healthcare facility for the baby’s physiotherapy adventure. Unfortunately, the mother shares all the experiences the ones she faced them with her baby in tears. There are some facilities where have lack of capacity to handle the baby’s medical needs. For this reason, the medical teams cannot manage the right approach the baby. There are some facilities where do not have the professionals to take care of the baby. Once the team cannot even touch the baby with their weird look and they fell down to the ground with the baby. Our medical team is so sad to hear all these negative sharings beside their happiness to meet the super cute and shy baby with her beautiful mother. Luckily, they do not have fear to manage the case. Because they have the awareness how to touch a baby with Down syndrome and they are serious to challenge both the baby’s medical condition, the mother’s concern. But to be honest the most difficult part is the first approach and touch the baby. Our physiotherapists have knowledge and experience in pediatric therapy regarding the infants with special needs. That’s why they are super happy to touch the super cute baby for a life long change and have awareness about the baby’s and the mother’s concern. It is one of the sweetest part, the mother’s copy paste her beautiful bright blue eyes to her baby. That’s why we start to call her ‘Baby Blue’.
Our physiotherapists firstly listen to the mother about their medical history and evaluate the medical documents before starting to have connection with the Baby Blue. Then they decide to manage the therapy process with the modernest therapy approach as Bobath Neurodevelopmental treatment which is ideal for the babies with Down Syndrome. It targets not only motor development but also perceptual, social and cognitive development. They conduct the treatment within the related topics; sensory stimulation of the baby, proper positioning, holding and carrying, exercising the mouth and facial muscles for sucking, feeding and speaking, gross motor development stages (turning, sitting, crawling, standing, walking), development of fine motor skills (effective use of hands, hand-eye coordination), posture control, quality of movements and walking, reduction of compensated movements, gaining balance, correction and protective reactions, developing trust in relationships sociability, problem solving, imitation, understanding, grasping, monitoring the musculoskeletal system, informing the family about possible deformities and referral to the physician if necessary, foot health (appropriate shoes, insoles and orthotics), parents training regarding the baby’s therapy and development. The most important issue of the therapy sessions are conducted in a game set up. The therapy session is based on evaluation, therapy and re-evaluation of the baby in play.
Our physiotherapists give importance to the inclusion of the parents and baby during the therapy. Because the collaboration of the parents during therapy is necessary. It has a vital role to plan the baby’s living space, decorating the baby’s home for applying the therapy at home as well. If the all family members have participation in the therapy process, it is possible to reach out the aimed normal function and quality of life. So our physiotherapists are careful to take care the baby and conduct the physiotherapy sessions. Because they always try look around and the world with the patients’ eyes. For example there are many factors which are serious to manage such as uniforms, high volume of sound / s, people around the baby, lights. Our physiotherapists know that these kind of factors can negatively affect the baby’s response to the treatment. For this reason, they think that it is not possible to provide effective therapy by avoiding the emotions, concerns of the baby and the parents. When they start the treatment after all the suitable conditions are provided, our Baby Blue shows a very successful adaptation and she improves her delayed crawling activity, sitting balance, full foot base touch, standing, stepping developments. In the case of muscle stiffness, massage is applied to the arms and legs for relaxing the muscles. Thus, exercise success is increased when sufficient length is provided in the muscle groups. Finally, we say that ‘See you!’ with tears of joy to the Baby Blue and her mother. Because we have a valuable success story which is turned from hopeless and sad experience into hopefull sample and an emotional connection. There are no more words to describe to see how Baby Blue is excited to discover the world and has self condition to connect with the others with her strong mother. Fortunately, we again can prove our understanding of as happy mother, happy child and happy physical therapy center team!
