My ds4 has hypotonic muscles, any advice?

[pepsi]

Went to the paed today and he said that our ds has hypotonic muscles which means that he is a bit floop and therefore his muscles arentstrong, which explains a lot about his pencil control that his school talks about, ball skills arent good and he is generally arms and legs everywhere when he runs. Paed said he probably wont be the best striker in the world or good at sport but will be fine on a bike and who knows sailing, bless he is a nice man. Anyway, is there anyone out there who can enlighten me more on this subject.

my daughter has hypotonia and it does improve with age.

Try typing "hypotonia" into google and it will c2ome up w
ith lotys and lots of info!!!

it basicaslly means low muscle tone, which i suppose you already know!!

Thanks fio2, could you tell me how old your dd is and how it affects her and any ways you have found to help her. Is she good at sport?

Another one here!

My 5 year old daughter was diagnosed with benign coongenital hypotonia when she was 15 months old and still not pulling herself up to standing. (She eventually walked at 22 months.)

I'm guessing that if your son is 4 and has only just had this diagnosis, it musn't be very severe. I think you just have to keep it in the back of your mind, especially if he's struggling with something.

My 5 year old will never be a star athlete. She isn't very strong and is a little clumbsy and seems to have low body awareness. But she isn't THAT different from her peers, and she certainly hasn't noticed anything different. She loves gymnastics and is very flexible. Her neurologist recommended swimming as a sport for her, and she is a good little swimmer.

She just (today in fact!) was discharged from some speech therapy she was having because of low muscle tone and low sensory awareness in her mouth and tongue. She tends to stuff her face when she's eating and makes a mess, and frustrating though it is, it's all part of the same thing.

Thanks for the messages, yes I think you are right, whatever it is with my ds its cant be that severe. He still has poor eye contact and a short attention span....when doing something he doesnt want to do!, he was half deaf until he was three due to glue ear too so he has had quite a bit to deal with in his short life. The paed says time will tell and basically we just have to wait and see.

Hi, Do any of you have any recommendations for speech therapists in London that are good with problems due to hypotonia - my little boy is 19 months and I think we need to now go see a speech therapist. The physio sessions have been amazing, and he is improving rapidly, finally pulling himself up this week though pretty far from walking still.

Thanks very much for any recommendations!

Hi HaylekK - just seen your other post. You may get more responses if you go to the topic list under 'health' or 'special needs' then click on 'create new converstation' then type in your question.

Anyway my dc2 has recently been diagnosed with hypotonia and hypermobility. He is now 4 so we missed alot of help during his younger years as I kept asking about his intoeing and both hv and dr kept saying he would grow out of it.

First thought with speech is using a straw for juice and blowing a pingpong ball game bubble blowing, singing.

If he has hypotonia all over I would recommend (but check with your dr first), swimming, trampoline, horseriding, lots of trips to the beach running up and down the sand dunes to build up muscles. Lots of short bursts of exercise as their muscles have to work twice as hard as ours.

The dr said my son has the severe low muscle tone but was surprised by his strength. I put this down to having a very active older brother and us not knowing meant we did all the above without realising it was helping him build up his stamina. I also give him fish oils (morepa children's strawberry capsule) - the dr wasn't convinced if they benefit but I'm not taking any chances plus he has fresh salmon and tuna each week.

After lots of walking/exercise I have been told his muscles will ache so we give him very warm baths to help the muscles relax.

Hope it helps xx

hypotonia can be associated with celiac - this is rarely considered (unfortunately)

link

There is a lot of published research around, just search under gluten, gluten sensitivity or celiac (and hypotonia).

Good advice barking, esp the beach! My DS has hypotonia (DD to a lesser extent with dyspraxia) and a nice sandy beach is great, doesn't hurt so much when he falls either!

My DS is super strong too, can hold his own on a bar, climb a 5 bar gate and push a full sized wheelbarrow (is a small skinny 3.5)

good luck pepsi

Blimey Nightcat, thank you for the link. As we are new to this I hadn't heard about possible link with gluten.

One of the family members has hypermobility, hypotonia with chrones (sp?). The mother has always thought it's the low muscle tone which has contributed to the condition, including a collapsed bowel.

Have do you manage to go gluten free? With a family of 5 the idea terrifies me.

Thanks so much for all the advice which is fantastic - this is such a fantastic site and its so great to be able to speak to people going through the same thing as you. Barking did your dc2 and marmadukescarlet did you DS just have hypotonia and hypermobility? That sounds like what my boy has (i.e., not combined with anything else)(as far as I know). If so, what age did they walk and did they have speech problems - in what way did they have speech problems. Because my boy is only 19 months, I'm not sure whether he has speech issues or not. He hasn't really moved on from 'mama' or 'dada' which he has been saying for 8 months and he does a lot of shouting and babbling and trying to say words, but they all see to come out as 'mama' mostly.

Hi HayleyK
My dc2 just has hypermobility and hypotonia. This will sound awful - but having 3 children quite close together has mashed my memory. I think he was walking by 16 months and speech was slow, but wasn't worried as many boys can be later. He talks away fine just has a lisp but hoping he will tighten his speech as he gets older.

Another thought is just to chat as much as possible one to one, lots of eye contact. Chat about what you are doing, ask him for help, or to get something. Presume he understands eveything and talk away!

Have you a singing/music toddler group nearby? I use to go to a Montessori one which was fab. I think they call themselves 'Musikgarten' if you want to google. Or you could just get a children's nursery cd and sing away - that could really help with the mouth muscles as there is lots of exaggeration. Use a big mirror so he can see what shapes he is making with his mouth. Just engage with him as much as possible.
Barking xx

Thanks loads - will do!