Gait trainer

[marisa]

Hi all!! I haven't posted in awhile because of house renovations, computer problems and just plain busy.

Anyway, Laura has been doing well (except for an ear infection over the holiday - her first). After waiting and waiting, yesterday they delivered Laura's gait trainer. I was wondering if any of you used one and how successful it was/is. Gross motor is Laura's major weakness. She does not crawl, but she will scoot on her rear to get around. She will occasionally roll as well, but only in open spaces as she is getting bigger. She is in the beginning stages of pulling to stand. She can pull up from sitting on a stool, but not from the floor. I am hoping this gait trainer will help her get on her way to walking. MY dream is to have her walking by summer or cruising with confidence. I would like to get out more this summer than last ... KWIM.

I would really like to hear about any experiences with this ... good or bad.

Thanks

Marisa

[heidiashliesmom]

We never used a Gait Trainer for Ashlie, but Ashlie didnt learn to walk until a lil over 2 yrs old. She has very weak ankles and we ended up getting her some AFO's that ended up helping her. But I have heard of parents using the trainers and they have helped there kids learn to walk so hopefully it will help Laura and she will soon be running all over

Hugs
Heidi

[cmedrano99]

Ok I am baffeled.. Having all three of mine and 2 walked around 2 1/2yr... Now Joshua is 3 1/2 and still not got the truck support to stand we finally broke to get a gait trainer. This si so he will be ready to go to 4K and walk some and not scoot everywhere.

We are trying out a Kaye Trainer now.. it was awseome to see him stroke it to walk. We are going to try a rifton gait trainer in a few weeks. I think it will give him more support.

But Laura is not even 2 so just blew my mind you have one for her.

I will keep you posted if it works for us.

Good Luck! Anxoius to here out it works for her.

[kristin]

Marisa ~ Good for you for getting aggressive with getting Laura up and walking. Cole never had a gait trainer, though it was discussed many times. He was 29 mos. old before he ever took his first steps. It was slow and steady from there, with the main emphasis on "slow"!! It took him a good 5-6 mos. before he could go any distance without crashing. Gross motor is his weakest area too, but he never scooted; he always did a very "typical" crawl/creep on hands and knees. So, point being, your girl is still really young to expect walking, but again, good for you for being so proactive! Also, we used AFO's too; don't know if you've looked into that. Good luck and happy walking!

[marisa]

Cynthia, the rifton gait trainer is the one we have (metallic purple, to be exact).

Laura does have MAFO's, not sure how that differs from AFO's though. She has had them since the summer to give her support when standing. She will be wearing them when in the trainer. We (me, Mark and therapist) feel that Laura wants to walk, she just doesn't have the confidence or the knowledge (just hasn't clicked in her head that she CAN do it, KWIM) to take that big leap. If I hold her "bottom" she will take off walking for me. I just can't hold he in that position with the support she needs for more than a few steps. We are hoping that the trainer will help her in these areas. Also, the therapist has worked with these a lot and thinks once Laura learns to walk in it, she will pull to stand to get in it.

Kristin, you used the word "aggressive" and mentioned her still being really young to walk. I was up last night wondering if I was being too aggressive. I hope I haven't set my expectations too high. I guess I will know soon.

I will keep you posted one her progress with it. Her therapist comes today and she will have her first chance to comfy with it.

Marisa

[kristin]

No way, Marisa!! I didn't mean that negatively at all! We have to set our expectations high!! You know Laura best, and I am sure you are right on track with her seeming like she wants to walk. Sorry to cause you to second guess yourself... that was not my intent at all! The comment was to praise you, but also to keep you from getting discouraged, if she doesn't take off right away. I think it is wonderful that you are doing all this, and I'll just bet it works, too!

[andrewsmom]

ok....I guess I have some homework to do here. I'm sorry but I have never heard of a "gait trainer". Andrew should be getting his AFO's this week, and ofcourse I never knew anything about them until recently either. If a gait trainer is what I am picturing, is it a kind of like a push cart to have support to walk with? Or does it support the child's bottom at the same time? Like I said, sorry but I have some homework to do on this. It does seem interesting if it can help with posture or what some refer to as a "gait". Thanks for posting on this so I can learn some more.

Ohh...and I TOTALLY agree with Kristin. We should all keep our expectations high with our little ones and aggresive is the way to go. The therapists all laugh at me when I say to Andrew "no pain no gain, now lets do it I know you can". Ofcourse this is only when I KNOW he can do something. But a little push every now and then can bring leaps and bounds. Good for you and don't bring your expectations down one bit.
-Trisha

[Chris]

Marisa,

I often wonder if Sarah would have walked later if she had no therapy. She used to get so upset in therapy that I wondered if it was worth it. I guess the real benefit of therapy is to strengthen weak muscles as well as teach them balance.

Sarah took her first steps shortly after her second birthday but wasn't able to walk across the room until she was 30 months. She crawled (on hands and knees, belly off the floor) at 17 months. I was agressive about getting her as much PT and OT as I possibly could. Sarah has very low tone and still walks with a very wide gait.

We have never used a gait trainer but I would like to hear more.

Chris

[Kristen]

We had a reverse walker for Carter for a while - is that similar? After watching him walk up stairs on the little play thing at therapy holdign both of the railings and dong really well with that, I said, why don't we have a walker for him? Well, it took a few months but shortly after he was up and walking alone! We wrote it into his IEP and sent it to school with him over the summer to ambulate in the hallways and sure as shooting - the third week they sent it home because he was doing it all on his own! One day he literally could hardly stand on his own and the next he literally walked across the room. He met all of his IEP goals for PT we set in May before school started in August, it was that fast.

OK, gotta share the heartwarming story...I was goin to have my acrylic nails taken off shortly after Carter was born at the saoln I went to. It was in a hotel and there was somekind of conference going on and a bunch of families with secial needs kids were there. Carter was still in the hospital, it was that early on. I was going in and there was this cutest little boy outside in some kind of walker and his Dad was playing with him - the boy would sneak up and Dad would say whatcha doing? The boy would laugh and run off and come back - you know that game. Seeing that was one of my first and very brief moments of peace I felt after all that had gone on. I felt like it was a sign and things were going to work out after all. I still see it in my mind. Fast forward 2 1/2 years. I had Carter and we were leaving his center based PT session and he was in his walker. I had him all wrapped up like an eskimo - it was windy and cold, but he absolutely INSISTED he was walking - into the wind, of course! I was struggling to hold him wiggling all around and Syd and the walker so I said fine already, it isn't far! I still see this in my mind, too. My little boy in his navy blue coat and hat and mittens with his handmade red scarf going into the wind with that little silver walker. He was having a time, but I backed off and let him do it himself. He had a hard time with the mittens on, so he wrapped his one arm over and around the bar to drag it. He was veering close to the bushes, but he would pull it back and keep going, head down, full of determination. A man was walking towards us and he stepped aside, I looked up at him and he had tears. He said, they really can do anything, can't they? Look at your boy go, just look at him! I think my boy was to that man what that little boy I saw all that time before was to me. Who knew a silly walker could have such a story to it?

[Emilysmom]

Awwwww Kristen......tears in my eyes here!!! What a great story, and that man was SO right about the determination of kids. They CAN do anything!!

Marisa~
Emily never had a gait trainer, but I checked into it several times. Each time, I was told that she was not "ready" for it yet and that she would walk "soon". Looking back, I probably should have pushed a bit more for one. We worked SO hard on walking and Emily certainly wanted to walk........we did the AFO's, but after a while the PT said they were actually preventing her from taking more than 4 or 5 steps because the firmness of the bottom of them would not let her foot bend enough to do the heel/toe stepping. I hope that makes sense. She was very comfortable with crawling, and could move like lightening that way and I think it felt much "safer" to her. She didn't walk independently everywhere she went until she was nearly 3 years old. But, I will say that after she started to walk.........she did not have any type of gait "problems".

Anyway, I can't see ANY way that the gait trainer can possibly HURT and it sure could HELP Laura, so I would definitely try it out. Let us know how it works!!!

Susan

[ValerieC]

Just have to pipe in here. I don't know anything about the gait trainer, but let us know how it goes.

Kristin,
That story was amazing! Thanks for sharing it.

Valerie

[momofrussell]

I don't know anything about gait trainers except what I read from you guys!

Russell didn't walk until 3. I was pregnant with Reece and Russell turned 2 and our goal was to have Russell walking by Oct.. when Reece was to be born... he would have been 2 1/2.. but nope.. he was on the lazy side and I am sure being blind might have something to do with it So... he walked at 3 (a few weeks or so shy of his 3rd bday) and not really well until he was 4. We used one of those walker toy things and we'd put overalls on him (per request of PT) to hold him up in the back and the PT and I would go outside on the sidewalk and walk him down the street! heehee... he finally got it! Since alot of our kids army crawl instead of knee crawl, prior to walking, it is harder to learn to walk actually. So.. that also played a part in Russell's lack of progress at times.

I say whatever works for your daughter in getting to the next step, then GO FOR IT! NO ONE can be more agressive then my FIL with my husband.. he was bound and determined to get him walking by a year.. and Kevin was walking by 9 months due to FIL constantly working with him and getting him there! LOL

A.

[marisa]

Thanks everyone for the input and possitive thoughts.

Laura's PT came yesterday and we worked a little with the new gait trainer. All she wants Laura to do is stand in it for 10 minutes twice a day with her MAFO's on. Then we will increase the time as tolerated and move on to walking in it. She wants Laura to be real comfortable with it before we really start "working" with it. We put toys around and in it so she will continue to check it out. It seems to be working because my mom came over to see it and immediately Laura scooted over to it and was putting her hands on it to show Mom-Mom her new "toy".

Here is the link to what it looks like to those that are interested.
www.rifton.com/cpc/net/onlineorders/frmConfigureItem.aspx?catalogno=K501&overrideobjectId=64666

By the way, insurance did pay for it.

Marisa

[gloriaelias]

Hi Marisa,

You are not being to aggressive, but if it doesn't work, don't get discouraged. Jacob will be 4 years old in May and he is not yet walking. We have done the gait trainer, the backwards walker, we will be trying the AFO's next. Jacob was in the gait trainer when he was 2 years old, he hated it, threw a fit. He would look at it and start crying. It was hard on him as well as us. The PT said that his resistance might make his learning even harder. We stopped it for a while, now he is tolerating it and actually taking some steps now. It's been a long process with Jacob. We are challenging and "pushing" him to get stronger, but he will ultimately be the one to decide when he is capable of doing something. He goes to therapy 4 times a week and gets 1:1 at school twice a week. His issue is not so much strength, but putting it all together : If that makes any sense to you.

But anyways, try it all, keep your goals high, if it fails, try it again later. Good Luck

Gloria

[Kristen]

Oh, just to add what didn't work...treadmill therapy! WHAT A DISASTER! OMG it was soooo bad for him! I think we only went for two months before giving up and moving on to center based therapy at Easter Seals. They would string that poor boy up like a parachuter and off that tread would go. He bent up his knees, straddled the moving tread, EVERYTHING to get out of it. There was no point to it at all so we said forget it. Smart cookie, though. It took him about two weeks to figure out spreading him legs apart let it run between and he would LAUGH...Stinker pie.