Low muscle tone

jbl126

I usually just lurk here but my girls are preemies (though to look at them now you would never know).  They were born 33 weeks.  We just went to our 2nd neonatal followup appt and was told Ava has low muscle tone in her arms because she loathes tummy time.  So she never has it and therefore cannot really push up on her arms.  They gave us some ideas on how to try to get her on her tummy for seconds at a time.  Just wondering if anyone else's LO has/had low muscle tone and what you did about it.

Thanks!

Heather1979

Olivia actually has surprisingly good muscle tone for a preemie, but the preemie doc gave us a list of exercises to try with her.

Some suggestions were to roll up a towel and have it... under her armpits to help with tummy time. It wasn't as cushy as the boppy so she did "swimming" motions while on her tummy. And the boppy helped too. I have a mini boppy that came with a playmat and she uses that as well.

Then if you sit on the floor with your back against a sofa or something and stretch your feet out in front of you, place LO on your lap face down. Put some toys on the floor and (if you need it) a book so LO can put her hands on something while looking over the edge of your legs. Keep your hand on her tushie so she doesn't tumble. Olivia likes this one the best, but beware because I end up with a HUGE drool spot on my pants when she does this.

"So big" and "hug yourself" are exercises they gave us to do with her arms too... 

Your little ones are adorable!

Jennyjenz

Heather1979:

Olivia actually has surprisingly good muscle tone for a preemie, but the preemie doc gave us a list of exercises to try with her.

Some suggestions were to roll up a towel and have it... under her armpits to help with tummy time. It wasn't as cushy as the boppy so she did "swimming" motions while on her tummy. And the boppy helped too. I have a mini boppy that came with a playmat and she uses that as well.

Then if you sit on the floor with your back against a sofa or something and stretch your feet out in front of you, place LO on your lap face down. Put some toys on the floor and (if you need it) a book so LO can put her hands on something while looking over the edge of your legs. Keep your hand on her tushie so she doesn't tumble. Olivia likes this one the best, but beware because I end up with a HUGE drool spot on my pants when she does this.

"So big" and "hug yourself" are exercises they gave us to do with her arms too... 

Your little ones are adorable!

 

we were give the exact same exercises for Georgia to enjoy TT and to help strengthen her neck muscles (she has torticollis).  Georgia went from loathing TT to tolerating it in a very short span of time.

GL!