08 Dec Does your child have Cerebral Palsy affecting one of their arm and leg Does your child 👶🏻have Erb’s Palsy which affected their arm
If you answered yes to the above statements, be aware to handle your child’s arm with care! 🤗
The arm is connected to the body only by muscles 💪 and ligaments. So when there is damage to the nervous system controlling the muscles and movement in the shoulder and arm, the arm tends to hang limply by the side of the body. 😔The child tends to have difficulty in lifting the arm past 90 degrees shoulder height, which means that they are also not able to resist any force pulling at their arm. 😳The common mistake that parents make when trying to help the pick up a baby or child is to pull them by the weak arm. When this is repeated daily and many times a day, the ligaments holding the arm at the shoulder joint starts to stretch and the shoulder begins to sublux ( drop down from the shoulder joint). Once the shoulder joint subluxes,😳 it cannot return to its normal position and you will notice a step deformity in their shoulder. Even when no one is pulling at the weak arm, the weight of the arm itself will over time gradually cause the shoulder joint to sublux.😱
So to prevent shoulder subluxation of the weak arm and to remind parents and carers to be careful with the weak arm, it is important to support the arm either by wearing an arm sling or to wear a customised shoulder support orthosis. For newborn babies, an arm sling is often fashinoned out of their singlet to remiond everyone who handles baby to be gentle with their arm. 👍🏻Here at My Favourite Physio, our Expert Physiotherapists work closely with an Orthotist to design and customise Dynamic Garment Orthosis for children that can help to support weak shoulders to ensure optimum positioning of the shoulder joint and allow maximum function of the arm. 💪
If you are concerned about your child who has a weak shoulder due to damaged nerves, ring My Favourite Physio📱 on (02)9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists to find out how we can help your child protect their shoulder joint and regain function!