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Neonatal broken humerus advice

1 reply

TkSk · 18/11/2023 12:55

Tl;dr - does anyone have experience of a newborn breaking their humerus and have any advice on the treatment process they went through?

DS (4mo) broke his humerus bone during birth. He was nearly 5kg and had his hand on the side of his face as he came through, and the doctors had to pull him through which broke the bone.

He was in hospital for two weeks, then a cast for another two. When the cast came off, the doctor was satisfied and said everything would heal by itself - that we literally needed to do nothing. At a later pediatric appointment, a different doctor suggested physio would be appropriate. We then found a local physio who has been teaching us Vojta techniques (aka reflex locomotion). We live in Slovakia, and the medical scene here is maddening; almost every Dr has a wildly different opinion.

DS sometimes uses the broken arm just like the normal one, but sometimes he twists it round with internal rotation. This is possibly due to the arm being held in place so early with the cast.

The physiotherapy is taking its toll - DS hates it and screams the place down. We've stopped doing it for a week or so, and he's back to being happy and bubbly. Everyone feels much calmer and happier, including our other DS (2yo). However, the physio is implying DS will forever have a weird arm if we don't follow her advice. Thing is, Vojta is listed as an alternative medicine and I can't find any info about it being used in the UK.

Has anyone been through similar situation who has any pearls of wisdom?

OP posts:
volunteersruz · 18/11/2023 13:38

not personally but as an ex physio i'm interested (albeit NOT paediatric hence why i cant add much about current clinical practise). There is a UK site for Vojta therapy but i suppose i'd be asking was there anything about the initial fracture to suggest it wouldn't heal in a straightforward fashion? a 4 month old moving their arm in internal rotation is neither here nor there, he's got lots of developmental stages to go through like crawling which will develop his muscles and joint strength; as he had a fracture at birth its not like it was a crucial time for arm development. Videos of my daughter show her crawling with arms internally rotated, as babies learn to reach and grab for items this develops their external rotation. It sounds like the Dr. was happy it wasn't going to affect his growth plates otherwise they'd have scheduled a review. Extra intervention for a simple straightforward fracture may not be necessary, the good thing about fractures in children is that they often heal very easily.

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