Did your preemie stand early

irishbaby0708 · April 2010

Did you preemie stand early and did you try to stop it? My Lo wants to stand all the time. Every time you pick him up he automatically locks his legs to stand. Yesterday i had an evalualtion from ealry Intervention and they told me that i shouldn't let his stand that it could effect his development. Has any one else heard this?

Sweets2005 · April 2010

Did she explain how it could affect their development? Mine are 6 months adjusted now and they love to stand when you hold them, but I think this is about the age that babies start to do this...

SWMcFarland · April 2010

Mine has stood from day 1. Or rather, day 2. I have no idea what she did day 1.

Really though...the NICU nurses used to talk about her being a wonder baby because they were able to stand her up and she actually would put weight in her little legs. I have no idea if this is truly out there or not, but she's always had strong legs and likes to use them.

I am not sure how that is a bad thing, though...

irishbaby0708 · April 2010

She said that babies need to develop from the head down and that it can hurt them by standing to ealry. Lo Loves to stand too he's only 3 months 3 weeks adjusted.

mommamorris · April 2010

yes! and yes!

wren was basically "standing" even when she was in the nicu. and everyone thought it was so cute because she was so tiny. so, up until a few months ago when she was in our laps or we were holding her or whatever she would always stand.

after talking to the dev ped about this, she said that the primary goal has to be core strength to begin with. preemies automatically have more tension in their legs because they didn't get that time all crunched up in the womb. (this is the same reason they are inflexible, and often "find their feet" later as well.) they can also have more tension because of CP...it doesn't have to be- it can just be preemieness- but it's something they'll watch to make sure it goes away.

so, we started always making her sit in our laps, with just a hand on her lower back, barely supporting. within a month or so she was basically sitting on her own- though her balance was still off. and now, she sits and plays by herself. (though she still falls over after a while when she reaches for something too far away! we also limited "bumbo time" as the physical therapist and dev ped said that it offered "too much support".. so we try to just hold her, without supporting her, as much as possible. (this includes when we go out, we don't bring in the baby carrier, we just hold her or wear her.)

SWMcFarland · April 2010

mommamorris:

yes! and yes!

wren was basically "standing" even when she was in the nicu. and everyone thought it was so cute because she was so tiny. so, up until a few months ago when she was in our laps or we were holding her or whatever she would always stand.

after talking to the dev ped about this, she said that the primary goal has to be core strength to begin with. preemies automatically have more tension in their legs because they didn't get that time all crunched up in the womb. (this is the same reason they are inflexible, and often "find their feet" later as well.) they can also have more tension because of CP...it doesn't have to be- it can just be preemieness- but it's something they'll watch to make sure it goes away.

so, we started always making her sit in our laps, with just a hand on her lower back, barely supporting. within a month or so she was basically sitting on her own- though her balance was still off. and now, she sits and plays by herself. (though she still falls over after a while when she reaches for something too far away! we also limited "bumbo time" as the physical therapist and dev ped said that it offered "too much support".. so we try to just hold her, without supporting her, as much as possible. (this includes when we go out, we don't bring in the baby carrier, we just hold her or wear her.)

Very interesting.

Our NICU offered similar info on core strength, but felt standing is a great way to get it, as it requires balance and cooperation from the top part.

We never did a bumbo, she hated it. She was sitting unsupported before 6 months as well, though, so I am not sure if that made a difference or not.

ijack · April 2010

mommamorris:

yes! and yes!

wren was basically "standing" even when she was in the nicu. and everyone thought it was so cute because she was so tiny. so, up until a few months ago when she was in our laps or we were holding her or whatever she would always stand.

after talking to the dev ped about this, she said that the primary goal has to be core strength to begin with. preemies automatically have more tension in their legs because they didn't get that time all crunched up in the womb. (this is the same reason they are inflexible, and often "find their feet" later as well.) they can also have more tension because of CP...it doesn't have to be- it can just be preemieness- but it's something they'll watch to make sure it goes away.

so, we started always making her sit in our laps, with just a hand on her lower back, barely supporting. within a month or so she was basically sitting on her own- though her balance was still off. and now, she sits and plays by herself. (though she still falls over after a while when she reaches for something too far away! we also limited "bumbo time" as the physical therapist and dev ped said that it offered "too much support".. so we try to just hold her, without supporting her, as much as possible. (this includes when we go out, we don't bring in the baby carrier, we just hold her or wear her.)

This. Because preemie's don't get time to develop in a fetal position it's really important to not develop the standing muscles too early. Our PT didn't want her in an exersaucer more than 10 minutes a day because of this. So we did a lot of floor and tummy time and used the bumbo to help her get an idea of how to sit and how fun it was

Them standing isn't "bad", but they shouldn't do too much of it. It's very important for them to learn to crawl before they learn to walk

mommamorris · April 2010

SWMcFarland:
mommamorris:

yes! and yes!

wren was basically "standing" even when she was in the nicu. and everyone thought it was so cute because she was so tiny. so, up until a few months ago when she was in our laps or we were holding her or whatever she would always stand.

after talking to the dev ped about this, she said that the primary goal has to be core strength to begin with. preemies automatically have more tension in their legs because they didn't get that time all crunched up in the womb. (this is the same reason they are inflexible, and often "find their feet" later as well.) they can also have more tension because of CP...it doesn't have to be- it can just be preemieness- but it's something they'll watch to make sure it goes away.

so, we started always making her sit in our laps, with just a hand on her lower back, barely supporting. within a month or so she was basically sitting on her own- though her balance was still off. and now, she sits and plays by herself. (though she still falls over after a while when she reaches for something too far away! we also limited "bumbo time" as the physical therapist and dev ped said that it offered "too much support".. so we try to just hold her, without supporting her, as much as possible. (this includes when we go out, we don't bring in the baby carrier, we just hold her or wear her.)

Very interesting.

Our NICU offered similar info on core strength, but felt standing is a great way to get it, as it requires balance and cooperation from the top part.

We never did a bumbo, she hated it. She was sitting unsupported before 6 months as well, though, so I am not sure if that made a difference or not.

from what i understand standing is just easier for them because of the "preemie tension" they have. it's not that standing is really bad or anything... it can help with balance etc... but more that they tend to want to do whatever is easiest- leaving them standing all the time- which they're already better at, and never learning to sit. i think it was mentioned above "strength from the neck down"... so they should hold their head up, push up on arms, sit up unassisted, then stand etc.i think it's pretty much in line with the milestone charts that you'll find most peds/dev peds/pt using. (though, of course, kids are all different.)

we still let wren use her jumperoo... every other day or so- she doesn't love it, but she does love to dance to music, so we'll put her in there for a few minutes to "dance"... it's so cute! it's not going to kill her to stand, but we just don't let her do it all the time like she used to.

Ktbuss · April 2010

Our PT made a big point not to use any toys that encouraged standing or even letting him stand when we were holding him. Which of course he loved to stand and always wants to stand. My little guy does have alot of grading in his muscles but now that he is getting older and almost crawling the PT allows us to let him stand since this is the next milestone he needs to hit. I was also told that as long as they bounce when standing it was ok it's when they just lock their legs that it becomes a problem.

SWMcFarland · April 2010

mommamorris:
SWMcFarland:
mommamorris:

yes! and yes!

wren was basically "standing" even when she was in the nicu. and everyone thought it was so cute because she was so tiny. so, up until a few months ago when she was in our laps or we were holding her or whatever she would always stand.

after talking to the dev ped about this, she said that the primary goal has to be core strength to begin with. preemies automatically have more tension in their legs because they didn't get that time all crunched up in the womb. (this is the same reason they are inflexible, and often "find their feet" later as well.) they can also have more tension because of CP...it doesn't have to be- it can just be preemieness- but it's something they'll watch to make sure it goes away.

so, we started always making her sit in our laps, with just a hand on her lower back, barely supporting. within a month or so she was basically sitting on her own- though her balance was still off. and now, she sits and plays by herself. (though she still falls over after a while when she reaches for something too far away! we also limited "bumbo time" as the physical therapist and dev ped said that it offered "too much support".. so we try to just hold her, without supporting her, as much as possible. (this includes when we go out, we don't bring in the baby carrier, we just hold her or wear her.)

Very interesting.

Our NICU offered similar info on core strength, but felt standing is a great way to get it, as it requires balance and cooperation from the top part.

We never did a bumbo, she hated it. She was sitting unsupported before 6 months as well, though, so I am not sure if that made a difference or not.

from what i understand standing is just easier for them because of the "preemie tension" they have. it's not that standing is really bad or anything... it can help with balance etc... but more that they tend to want to do whatever is easiest- leaving them standing all the time- which they're already better at, and never learning to sit. i think it was mentioned above "strength from the neck down"... so they should hold their head up, push up on arms, sit up unassisted, then stand etc.i think it's pretty much in line with the milestone charts that you'll find most peds/dev peds/pt using. (though, of course, kids are all different.)

we still let wren use her jumperoo... every other day or so- she doesn't love it, but she does love to dance to music, so we'll put her in there for a few minutes to "dance"... it's so cute! it's not going to kill her to stand, but we just don't let her do it all the time like she used to.

Makes sense to me! :-)

Want a personalized experience?

Did your preemie stand early

Re: Did your preemie stand early

Choose Another Board

Search Boards