Standing frames

[Albaba]

I have a 22 month old dd who has been recently diagnosed with mild cp. She is still not walking at 22 months. She is at the stage of pulling up on to furniture and side stepping along it. She also has hypotonia and is weak in her trunk area. We are seeing a physio once a week. We have been given a standing frame to use at home which we are using for 1 hour a day. The problem is that she hates it. She starts really high pitched screaming and throwing herself back in the frame. We try to distract her with snacks and interacting with her which only works for a short while.
Obviously we want to do the best for her. She is the only baby in her nursery group that is not walking. Also we take her to a soft play session once a week and again is the only one that doesn't walk. I feel sorry for her sitting back and not being able to join in and do what the others are doing.
Should we perservere with it and will it make a difference to her being able to walk? Short term pain for long term gain? She has just discovered climbing stairs albeit slowly and seems to enjoy it. Would something like this be just as beneficial as the standing frame?

In my very limited (non medical) experience , I have not seen standing frames given to children who are able to stand by themselves. My DD had a frame for a couple of years when she was small but she was not able to sit up unaided, let alone stand.
Ask the physio what they are trying to achieve. Discuss the pro's and cons. If they just want your DD to spend more time standing to strengthen her legs, then couldn't you just encourage her to do this through play anyway, if she is pulling herself up and cruising furniture? I would have thought some sort of walker to encourage her to move around might be more beneficial. Can't imagine anyone would choose to be strapped into position for an hour a day - so not surprised she gets upset.

Hi. Did you get told why you were given a standing frame.

DS has one from about 22 months and ditched it about 6 months later _ although to be fair we still have it and just use it when I want him to be higher up to help cook in the kitchen - I don't tell the NHS about that as I know its a health and safety issue for them.

In our case DS has CP, and was cruising standing at that age, but not well if you see what I mean. He would bend at the hips and lock his knees and so wasn't getting the hip extension they wanted. In the frame it gave the extension, and also helped support him to allow him to develop fine motor skills in standing - alongside his NT peers at nursery or at home cooking etc. We also tended to put him in it in front of the TV! we found that once he was used to it, and had something in front of him to play with he realised it gave him attention he would not otherwise get and abilities he didn't have with his hands.

We built up the time gradually first 10 mins then up to 45 we were told not to go as long as 1hr. He also hated it but not that much

On balance I think the stander was good for DS. It was also good for us as once he was used to it it allowed us to know we were at least doing something when DS was in front of the TV (when we were being bad parents) It did also help with the hip extension and core stability which is still poor but improving

Disagreeing with Bigbluebus as my son has a standing frame and can both stand and walk independently (although when he first had a stander he couldn't even sit unaided).
The stander is to help encourage his muscles and joints into the correct positions; to get the correct extension, muscle tone etc. I suspect it will also help strengthen stomach muscles which will help her weak trunk.

An hour may be too long in one go for her. Have a chat to your physio - maybe reverting to a shorter time and building it up may help; or perhaps two half hour sessions etc. Also worth considering if there is any pain - check with the physio that she is in the correct position.

My DD has CP and used a stander when she was younger.

Being upright and in the right position is very important for their development. Children are born with bones that are softer than adults. In order for them to get stronger they need to wieght bear.. One of the main reasons standers are used is to help the hip sockets form properly. If a child is not wieght bearing their hipsockets may not form properly and be too shallow leading to possible dislocations or surgury further down the line. An hr a day is what is recommended, it is really important for their physical development. Depending on what type you have you an tilt it forward so they are also working their back muscles. We had a Jenx Monkey to begin with.

We started with 10/15mins and built it up. Messy play is your friend, gloop, cornflower, painting, water play, anything that is harder to do while sitting down. To begin with you might want to have special things or treats that he is only allowed when in the stander.

Hope that helps, it really is worth persisting with.

yes ds2's was to encourage correct posture while standing & to give him support to allow him to use his arms.
So he had activities to do at the table/tray while in stander

We have used a stander every day since dd was 14mths. Build the time up slowly, reward her for even going into it. Weight bearing is essential at a young age especially in the correct position. We let dd paint on to large sheets of paper pinned to the wall to distract her. She only got to do this while in the stander and loved it. She went from 5 minutes to 25 and then eventually 45 mins. We never made it to an hour though!