Stairs & mobility issues?

[mymatemax]

DS2 amongst other things has mild CP, he is mobile, in fact finds climbing easier than walking, but struggles with the stairs.
Hence this post as I've just carried a very heavy 4 year old downstairs.
He takes ages to get going in the morning & he is stiff & it just feels like i'm carrying a small elephant up & down stairs.

So have you all moved to bungalows or have you come up with a less expensive option?

my dd is 6 and can climb stairs, she has CP too

we really really worked on her strength because she was getting heavier so that she could do it herself despite her protests

however we have been told by her therapists that as she gets older it may get harder for her and we might need a stairlift - have you looked into those? not cheap I know but cheaper than moving house

you might even be able to get a disabled facilities grant from the local council if you start the process around 20 years before you need it

Thanks Cappucino,
Your right at the starting the process 20 yrs early!
I think we'll have to get someone in to assess for a stair lift at some point. Although its an old house with a very narrow staircase.
Our bathroom is downstairs so if he ever gets out of nappies, thats another problem, he won't be able to run downstairs to the loo!
Partly with him it is habitual, his rituals are very hard to break, at bedtime he will climb as far as the second step but that is it, in the morning however he is genuinely very stiff & takes a long while to wake.
I have been trying to occupy him upstairs for a while after he wakes but it doesn't make much difference, he isn't very lively until he has had a bath.

we added a downstairs bathroom to our house partly with help from a disabled facilities grant

but mainly we funded it

for the same reasons - not running up and down the stairs all the time

our physio did do work with us so that dd could do steps but obviously I don't know what your ds's abilities are

cappuccino,
we are just in the process of getting a disabled facilities grant for dd (6 with cp)
so she can have a downstairs bedroom and bathroom,
i mentioned this to dh when dd was 4 but he was really against the idea of dd sleeping downstairs but now she is 6 and far too heavy to be lifting(she is mobile but takes ages)so my advice would be to start the application procedure sooner rather than later and think big-so that in 5 years time you don't think"oh i wish we had done?..."
got to go it's bath time!!

the ot who assessed our dd(we already have the hand rails-courtesy of my dad)and a ramp to the front door courtesy of (social services i presume-although dd doesn't have a social worker as far as i'm aware!!)again organised by ot..
told me that it is very rare that a household with young children in will be offered a stair lift chair- too many risks.

No we don't have a Social worker either. I have been thinking about approaching them though. They sorted a cleaner for a friend with a disabled child
Thanks for your ideas I think dh & I need to talk to physio etc about long term. Hopefully we can do something in our current house as we can't afford to move.

Perhaps this wont work first thing in the morning for you, but as he enjoys climbing have you shown him how to bumb up and down (technical terms)the stairs?
My daughter who cant independently walk without her kaye walker indoors and uses her wheelchair outdoors, is a bum shufflier, and soon picked the step at a time on the bum up and down the stairs quickly. So much so, that in my sisters house when Dora the Explorer was tured off, she bummed into the hall, and a minute later I caught her out of the side of my eye - half way up the stairs!!!!
You will need to stand in front of your child for a while, until they have their confidence and balance........perhaps its worth a try - good luck

Thanks Mulsey, he was bumping up & down until recently but now he has mastered going up & down on all fours the only way I can get him to bump up & down is if he sits on my lap, he thinks its a game.
It really is the morning he struggles with more I think most of the time it is behavioural but the mornings I think it is a combination of physical & behavioural issues, its just as he gets bigger & heavier I can't see it getting any easier.
I'll try & convince him back into bumping down, it must be easier on my back than carrying him.

DD1 is 3 and fairly heavy. She can get upstairs (with a huge amount of cajoling) but not down. She just doesn't understand how to do it, no matter how often we hand-over-foot it.

Our community nurse suggested first teaching her to crawl on the flat, then when she has mastered that moving it onto the stairs. I reckon it will take us a year or to to get to that level - if we don't manage it then we'll be converting a downstairs room to a bedroom.