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Preemies
Should I be pushing for physical therapy?
The twins are going to be 6 months adjusted next week. At 4 months actual, they were right on track. They were turning from stomach to back, blowing raspberries, etc. Now, they seem to be falling behind. One is able to maintain a modified sitting position for a few seconds, but the other one can't. They are also not rolling over from back to stomach; they roll to their side, but never get the full way over. They have great head control and can hold onto rattles and stuff. Our next pediatrician appointment is not until 9 months, so I am wondering if I should call him sooner and ask for physical therapy. I don't know if I should be worried? (I am usually an emotional wreck about their developmental level and blame myself for not carrying them longer.) I am worried that if they are starting to fall behind now, are they going to continue to fall even more behind. Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. TIA!
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Re: Should I be pushing for physical therapy?
I don't want to tell you what to do-just wanted to share my story. My son was born at 26 weeks and he did not roll over until 7 months actual (4 adjusted). He did not do it again for another month then he kept doing it. He is now almost 3 and he is completely fine. He just always had that personality where he did things when he wanted to. We had an OT person coming out to our house questioning why he wasn't rolling over and telling us to do these exercises with him regularly to help. In reality, he was going to do it when he was ready.
That being said, I would definitely bring it up to your doctor if it doesn't improve by the next time you visit him/her. I completely understand the guilt and all the emotions. It has been close to 3 years for me and I still feel like an emotional wreck at times even though he turned out "normal."
It takes a while to get an eval and get EI started, so it wouldn't hurt to start pushing forward. You can even change your mind after the eval about needing therapy if you decide they don't need it between now and then.
I def don't think they should be sitting yet, but maybe rolling over - which is why I said above.
My son was a 26-weeker and has a very very cautious personality. He won't do things until he's 200% sure he can do them. He had OT/PT when he came home as a newborn. Even with weekly therapy from day 1, he army crawled at 9 months adjusted (not that late really) and then 4-point crawled a couple of months after that. We quit OT at a year, and then he didn't walk until 17-18 months adjusted. After quitting OT he did progress normally, just slowly. He was considered on track with his adjusted age but now is behind. We probably should have kept him in therapy but I guess it hasn't hurt anything, he just takes longer than most. I would have considered re-enrolling if he hadn't needed to start up with speech and feeding therapy too now, areas that he was not progressing at all or normally.
I don't think that sitting up is a huge issue at this point. DD has always lagged behind in her gross motor (and continues to do so) but more than compensates for it in fine motor and problem solving. She's right on track for socialization and communication. But guess what? Almost all full-term babies lag behind in one area and excel in others. Do your LOs excel in other areas? If so, maybe gross motor just isn't their thing. DD didn't walk until 17 months- but lots of full term babies don't walk until then either.
I would ask to talk to your pedi and have them evaluate their muscle tone and movements- so long as there is no physical reason why they aren't progressing then it shouldn't be a problem. DD, like the PP stated, is the kind of kid who only does things once she's 110% sure she can do it- so while she has the capacity she doesn't have the drive to keep up with her gross motor targets. Maybe your twins are similar- working on other skills and possessing the needed abilities to hit their gross motor targets but opting not to use them.