I have some interesting pictures/footage of Elena wearing kinesiotape. If you haven't heard of it, kinesiotape is a type of skin tape used for lots of applications...in our case, to stimulate/differentiate muscles. The tape is stretchy in one direction; so, depending on the position of the body and the direction/tightness of the tape, you can promote (or discourage) movement. It's sort of like wearing a band-aid across your knuckle, along your finger--if you put on the band-aid when your finger is straight, you don't want to bend your finger.
Anyway, we've tried it a few times--over her knees (to promote taller standing/walking) and across her right hip to discourage turning in her leg from the hip socket.
For some kids, the difference is pretty dramatic. For us, that wasn't the case. While I do feel like it helps (a little? there's a lot of "hand-waving" here), there is no massive difference. Depending on the application of the tape (alcohol primer, no repositioning, good adhesion) it will stay on 1-7 days. Elena does not mind it, provided she doesn't pull on it when getting dressed (you can't rip stuck tape off--you need oil).
I am interested in trying this for a while--and I'd like to make some before/after video footage. Problem is, every time we've done kinesiotaping, she's been in her underpants or in a situation where you can't see the tape. I can say, if this shows some progress and we end up doing this on a regular basis, I'll be learning how to do this myself.
Monday, September 26, 2011
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5 comments:
Wondering if you've ever tried Thera togs. It's kind of the same concept, but they are to be removed every day. I tried them for my son and we used them for a while, but he needed to learn how to stand well before we could get their full effect.
No luck with the tape here. It was more like torture in our case. Perhaps when Oia is older and understands why in the world we are putting tape on her?? In theory though, it does make sense. Not sure about long term though...
I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR MORE ON THIS TAPE? I WOULD BE INTERESTED TO KNOW IF IT WOULD ASSIST ME.. AMY YOU MENTIONED HOW E'S KNEE AND LEG TURN IN! MINE DOES THAT WHEN I STEP DOWN ESPECIALLY.. I WOULD REALLY BE INTERESTED IN HEARING MORE ABOUT THIS TAPE THOUGH!
MELISSA
Amy, we have used the tape mostly to hold Hannah's hand more open and of course it is difficult to say which modality is working the most when you do multiple things simultaneously but I think it has helped quite a lot. We tape from roughly the elbow down the forearm and hold the hand slightly flexed up when applying the tape up to the knuckles. We used to tape the fingers as well (that makes cutting the tape and applying it to a toddler much, much trickier) but we had an episode of swelling at the nail bed on all four fingers and ultimately she lost part of her nails. We'll never know if it was an allergic reaction or some entirely different cause but in case it was the tape we stopped taping fingers. I've been very happy with the results - really I am not sure how muh is that and how much is based on oher OT but unquestionable she does not fist her hand nearly as much. If you have your commenter Melissa's email addy send her my way - I think she and I have chatted before but I don't know if I know how to each her. We have done some abdominal taping but didn't see huge impact there, and we are planning to do some taping on the foot to hold her foot up a little more now that she is not using and AFO. E looks great!!
Thank you for posting this. Must have read your blog, I honestly love your blog. Kinesiology is very amazing tape to help us in our pains. And I have heard a lot of good comments about this tape.
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