Monday, September 20, 2010

Does your kid fall all the time?

Mine sure does. Don't get me wrong-Elena falls much better these days than she used to. Before, it was the "falling like a tree" phenomenon, where at any moment, she'd stiffen up and fall (or fall and stiffen up, take your pick) and hit her {insert body part here} followed by her head. Well, 5 years and tons of bruises later (but no major injuries, *whew*), Elena normally falls forward "knees-hands", sideways "rump/hip-hands" and backwards "rear-hands-maybe head". For any readers new to the CP experience, this is a big improvement.

A while ago I mentioned I was looking into knee protection--E has been falling HARD on her knees as she goes down...part of that may be b/c she's been practicing "jumping" on the couch or on carpet (landing on her knees), and has unwittingly incorporated part of her "jump" into her fall. I figured I needed to find something to soften the blow for my poor girl.

I made some knee pads out of soccer socks and old nursing pads...but they didn't stay on her knees. Some of you suggested using wrist "sweat" bands--good idea, but they didn't stay on either. My next idea was to sew padding into each of her pants, but that didn't help in the summertime...and then I found Baby Kneez.



Man do I love these. And no, I didn't get any for free, and they didn't ask for an endorsement. These knee pads STAY ON, and don't cut off E's circulation. Elena is 5 years old, about 29 (?) pounds and approximately 38" tall. I wrote an email to customer service, asking them honestly if they thought their product would help my child. Of course they said yes; but they said they'd take them back if I wasn't satisfied, and even offered a larger size that they haven't put in the store yet. I bought both the small and large, and tested them out for two weeks (the small size works better for E). I had a few questions along the way, and customer service was very prompt and helpful.



The confidence these little knee pads have given E has been fantastic--especially on hard surfaces, including outdoors. She wears them almost every day. Her little knees look better, not as bruised or scraped, which gives me piece of mind. E's gym teacher LOVES them, as he's seen E's attitude change. It helps that Baby Kneez come in lots of colors (we bought every one, as Elena is very fashion conscious). E can wear them over or under clothes, and we put them in the washer to clean--we just don't dry them, and to stretch them out after washing, I wear them on my knees for a few hours--and they don't cut off my circulation, either.

4 comments:

GingerB said...

Um, my typically developing child falls all the time (we may be in a grwoth spurt), of course her sister with CP does too! And me! I think I need to try these for Hannah. She is good about not crying about it, but her knees have been pretty scuffed as of late as she's had a big boost in confidence and action. I wonder if these would get her more daring at her Little Gym class. Great idea!

Unknown said...

my son with Apraxia fell ALL THE TIME. I seriously wanted to get him a helmet because we had hardwood floors while he was learning to walk a few years ago. I think it's a great idea to protect your little one from him or herself... and a hard surface :)

Sarah said...

My parents did the same thing when I was little, except they had to buy elbow pads since they're more flexable. I still fall all the time, well not as much, but just like everything else you get better with practice. I surprise people all the time with "how well" I fall without injury.

Cary said...

We tried these same knee pads for Ben this summer thinking they would be helpful when crawling on rougher surfaces. I found that they didn't stay on and he didn't really like them. So they didn't last long.

I will keep them in mind for falls in the future though...especially as we start to work more on independent standing and eventually walking.