Physical Therapy Exercises for Babies with Down Syndrome

Physical therapy exercises for babies with Down Syndrome

Whether done at home or another location physical therapy for Down Syndrome is not terribly difficult.

Realizing from the beginning that my baby with Down Syndrome was likely going to need lots of help learning some of the skills I always took for granted with his 5 older siblings, I immediately became proactive.  I am very blessed to live in a location that provides physical therapy for Down Syndrome in home, both as a free service, and also as a service billed to my insurance.  However, I was also a Google-aholic and I wanted to find anything I could do to help my little one.  In chatting with other moms from around the world I have come to learn that not all children with Down Syndrome are given the same therapies so, never one to hoard helpful information, I thought I would share what I have been doing at home with Cedar.

This is where I have to add in a disclaimer…I am NOT a physical therapist.  I am a mom working hard to help my son.  These are exercises that we do at home but they may not be right for your child.  That being said, use your judgment and if necessary, seek the opinion of a physical therapist or your pediatrician before beginning exercises with your baby.

Now with that out of the way, I started some basic moves from the time Cedar was just a few weeks old.  Most children with Down Syndrome have hypotonia or poor muscle tone. It makes them rather “floppy” for lack of a better term and they often have trouble with head and neck control for a longer period of time.  This exercise was one suggested by our pediatrician and was something that I could seamlessly integrate during diaper changes 2-3 times a day.  We would do about 5 of these in the morning and another 5 at night.  I did them slowly and it took quite some time to see progress but, it helped.

 Birth to 4 months

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Beyond head control Cedar has never been a fan of too much rolling.  He didn’t mind tummy time too much (again an excellent way to strengthen head and neck muscles) but if he wasn’t in the mood, rather than roll back over from tummy to back, he would just lay face down and go to sleep.  So, I wanted to help him learn how to roll and these are two of the exercises that our physical therapist showed me to help him.

3-4 months on

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A second exercise we did is here, again, super easy and using items we had on hand.

In addition to the rolling I wanted to help him continue to strengthen the neck muscles so that when he was on his tummy, he could lift his head and look side to side.  Here is another tip I picked up from a physical therapist.

Once Cedar’s head control got better (for us this was well into 5 months) I began looking at wanting to help him be upright more often.  It was at the middle of 6 months before I really began using prop sitting like you see in the video below, it was a good several times of flopping over before I was really seeing a difference in how long Cedar could sit upright and begin to steady himself a bit.  I do find that when he is tired, this is almost pointless so we aim to do this twice daily when he is not already tired out.  I try to let him sit in this position for a minimum of 3-4 minutes, longer if he will go for it, but always with me right there with him offering words of encouragement.

6 months +

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I have tried to always be cognizant of how I hold Cedar to encourage his spine to be straight for good posture and to help him as he is moving towards sitting. I try to incorporate this into our daily lives so it is less of a physical therapy exercise and more just a way in which I sit him.

Now that we are progressing in an upright position (still not sitting unassisted) We are also working on kneeling and pre-crawling processes. For us, this didn’t begin until just shy of 7 months.

7 months plus

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After a week of these assisted sitting and kneeling exercises I began working more on the pre-crawling exercises we had been shown.  I anticipate that we will continue to work on these for awhile as I help Cedar strengthen his body more so that he has the endurance and ability to begin to be mobile.

I want to share that if your babe is way further than Cedar, that is wonderful, if your babe is a little behind Cedar, that is not a problem either.  All of these special little ones will teach us patience and help us learn to slow down a bit.  I share what we are doing and how it is going mainly for those who haven’t yet hooked up with a good physical therapist, or who don’t have the means or ability to do so.  If your baby has a serious heart condition, some of these things may be too much physical exertion so be sure to consult a medical professional if you have concerns.

Now, please comment below if you have suggestions that I didn’t cover or exercises that have worked for you, I firmly believe we can all learn from one and other!

 

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