Just feeling low - over-flexible hips and ankles.

[Galena]

DD was born at 27 weeks in April 2009, so is now nearly 2 (1yr 10.5mo). She is a bright little thing, and is at the same level as her peers mentally and with fine motor skills. She began crawling in July last year and began pulling to stand in August. She is perfectly happy to walk pushing something and climbs into/over things with no fear!

However, she does not stand or walk unaided as yet. She has been seen by physio who has said her hips and ankles are too flexible meaning her feet turn in as she is trying to walk. In fact, she is so flexible that her foot can pretty much be facing backwards and she isn't bothered! We have exercises to do with her and we try but often she is uncooperative (and we can't just 'make her' do them as she needs to be standing to do them and when she doesn't want to cooperate she just drops to her knees and no amount of effort on my part will make her stand!).

I know that one day she will walk, but it breaks my heart to see all her little friends, who have been walking for nearly a year now, running around and laughing, while she crawls behind them and screams at them. :(

I know that I've got it so much easier than a lot of people on these boards and I'm sorry I'm feeling so self-pitying today, but I just need some support because I can't see an end at the moment. I could just cry!

sorry you are feeling low-keep going with the physio;although it may be hard if she doesn't want to-I thought my ds would never stand/walk unaided,but he can(although he has different issues)

I would try to get her lots of different things to push if she likes doing this,as this will be good practise-If she's still having problems in a few months the physio may be able to give her some proper equipment to help.Others may have more ideas-good luck

Thanks for your reply. I do try to persevere! She spends lots of time on her feet, so I think that's good for her, although the exercises she has to do are to strengthen her hips and buttocks, so maybe I need to capitalise on times she's standing doing something and try to do them then.

It's so hard when you see them falling behind their peers (even when you were kinda expecting it...)

However, a) this may not be as a result of her prematurity, and b) if this and her asthma are the only lasting effects of her prematurity, she got off very lightly really...

Galena

Have to say our youngest (completely normal as far as we know) is the same age as your daughter and not standing independently or walking either. Our eldest walked a week before his second birthday having shown no signs that he was going to at all (didn't believe my mum when she exclaimed that he was walking until he had another go).
Obviously your daughter had a different start to ours though.
Sounds like you've got the help your daughter needs in place which sounds really positive to me.
Otherwise with ds2 (cp) we just have to take it a day at a time and celebrate what he can do. The SN world is a different kind of existance.

My dd has lots of hypermobile joints combined with low muscle tone (due to birth hypoxia). It is frustrating as it does just take longer for those joints to strengthen up. My dd has a bendy trunk due to her hips and low tone but is getting so much better with lots of the right exercise and time.

Crawling is great - will really help to strengthen her hips. Longer term, trampolining, horseriding and swimming are fantastic exercise for building up joints and muscles.

Is hard not to compare with other babies - I gave up with baby groups as found it too hard but on the plus side, the milestones were amazing when they finally came!

This sounds just like my son, at this age, ask your Physio about supportive boots like Piedro. Many children are loose jointed, and this makes life harder. I don't by any means want to give you another worry, but ask your physio about EDS and hypermobility. Some things are great for a child with no medical problems but things like trampoling with Hypermobility or EDS can cause dislocations and knowing IF there are underlying genetic causes will help you to understand and plan.