Owen's physical therapist told us that it was very important that we figure out a way
to have Owen bear weight on his legs. Bone and muscles grow based on the amount of
weight that they have to carry. Many babies with large heads end up having poor
muscle tone and short legs because they don't use them until they are older. She showed us some exercises
where we would hold his head and torso and get him stand up on his legs. That is
certainly helpful, but most babies at this age (10 months) spend a significant amount of
time standing up while holding onto things (often known as "cruising").
So, to find a way for Owen to bear weight for longer than the few minutes or so that you
can hold him during exercises, I decided to come up with something that he could sit in
and push down with his legs. We found a good solution in a door jumper. It required
a bit of modification because Owen still can't hold his head up enough to be able to sit
up on his own.
The bouncer that I bought was a Graco Bumper Jumper, $33.96 at
Walmart.com
I liked it because the three straps provided a framework for me to attach things to
support his head. We started out by just putting a pillow behind his head. This worked
for the most part, but sometimes it would slip and then he'd slump over. If I had him
sitting up too straight, then his head could flop forward and he would bump his
face on the tray. Then I saw a
corner chair
on a website. This seemed like a good design, so I made his bouncer into a corner chair,
or something nearly like it.
The first thing I did was to attach the soft side of some sewable velcro on the straps
and one piece at the top of the seat. I wanted to be able to remove the backrest
or modify it later without changing the bouncer itself.
Next I cut a rectangle of quilted material and sewed a bit of a gather in the middle of the
top because the straps come together as they go up. I put the other half of the
velcro strips on either end
of the rectangle and one halfway down the middle. I also put one in horizontally in the
middle to match the one at the top of the seat.
Once this was done, I attached the backrest to the bouncer:
This worked pretty well and would probably have been fine. However after extended
periods of time, Owen would start to slouch down and get uncomfortable. His head was
also a bit more off to the side than I liked. So I made two cushions to go on either
side of him.
All that was left was to put in the baby. He loves his freedom. He's working on his
leg strength, his balance and it must feel wonderful to be able to move himself around
without relying on someone else.
We put different things under his feet to keep it interesting for him. We put down
bubble wrap (as seen above), soft blankets or anything else that might be
stimulating.
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