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New mum with cerebral palsy - need advice on how to cope

7 replies

speedyaaron · 05/04/2011 13:33

Hello I have cerebral palsy and walk with 2 sticks - I am independant when I can be but as my son who is 2 months old gets bigger I am finding it harder to carry him around. I can carry him around the house with a baby sling and he is so good and doesnt wriggle about.

My problem is carrying him in his car seat to the car - are there other ways? Do any other mums who are disabled have this problem

Also I am using a changing unit with a bath on but when he gets too big are there things I could buy to help me bath him in the normal bath?

Any help or advice would be great thanks

Sam

OP posts:
jjazz · 15/05/2011 20:39

We have a baby bath that fits in the top of our normal bath. Our son is a strapping 16 month old but still sits in it quite happily. We are both able bodied but it may help you if you need him to be higher up (nearer to your level) if you can kneel at the bath side. Hope this helps.

thelittlebluepills · 16/05/2011 17:46

Sam - I have just had a sort-out and I have a rabbbitt mat (description here).

It's in excellent condition and DH (who has MS) found it really helpful when changing DS when he got to a wriggly stage!

You are very welcome to have it for free. Please let me know if you'd like it and I'll send it to you

TraceyOnWheels · 22/06/2011 11:09

I have cerebral palsy too and about the same level of mobility as yourself. When my son was a tiny baby I also had the bath that sits over the normal bath, and I would sit in a chair beside the bath to bath him. When he got too big for this, I used one of those bath seats that looks like a toddler swing seat and sticks with suckers to the base of the bath. It held my son very securely again enabling me to sit at the side of the bath in a chair to bath him. I had a car seat that fitted onto the pram wheels, and used to wheel him to a car. Incidentally, my son is now a strapping 18 year old, so I didn't do too bad :)

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SunnyCarrie · 25/09/2011 19:41

I have a blog for disabled parents, I and my husband are severely disabled with an 8month old lovely healthy boy. I try to help others with ideas, equipment suggestions etc.

Bathing is tricky but do able. We rang our local council OT department and got them to bring out a bath/shower board which is a bath board, sits across bath with slats in it. Very sturdy. We then purchased the cheapest baby bath from Mothercare which has a little easily operated rubber bath plug in it. We sit the baby bath on top of the bath board, fill it up slowly with water, yeah it is slow so we just give him a weakly bath and a daily bed bath. We use our sink to fill up a bucket or tub with as much water as we can get to bath, it is slow process but worth it for once a week. Then two of us bath our son. My husband sits on the end of the bath and holds baby whilst I scrub.

Alternatively you can buy from Mothercare, Amazon anywhere really, a baby bath seat, depending on how old your child is there are varying ones, when he can sit on his own there are items such as the "Aqua Pod", alternatively if he or she is very young we laid our son in the baby bath on a "foam bath support" sponge. and had micro amount of water around. My blog goes into more ideas on bathing with physical difficulties, take a look.

We all feel we must bathe our child, reality is you must keep them clean, if you struggle or it feels dangerous don't beat yourself up about not being able to pop baby into a bath and just have a good soak down on top of a changing matt with a towel not used for drying on top of the matt and use a sponge and ice cream tub of warm water and get cleaning. Honestly our son is happy, smells clean, is clean and he certainly does not have a bath more than once a week!

My blog is being featured on Mumsnet under Disabled Positive Parent.Or follow this link.
disabledpositiveparent.blogspot.com/

I really wish you well, it is scary but you will be fine, honestly it is one of the happiest times and sure hardest times but worth it.

SunnyCarrie · 25/09/2011 19:43

Oh and please let me know if there is a good easy car seat solution because that is the worst thing I have found with having my son!

Cheers x

totallyyours · 30/09/2011 17:00

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mariamagdalena · 01/10/2011 22:42

There's a maxi cosi axiss swivel seat. Easier to get child in and out of. Only stage 1 tho, so no use for little babies. Maybe some sort of hoist pulley thing for getting a stage 0 into the back seat....

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