Вот следующая статья из этого цикла, я прошу прощения за идиотские рожи, которые почему то возникают на месте английских предлогов ab
Vitality and Vigor vs Vulnerability and Fragility
Two weeks ago we discussed the concepts of Robustness vs brittleness, shedding light on the importance of building intrinsic structural integrity in order to permit your child to control his/her upper body, underlining the elusive efforts related to ‘training’ if compressional strength is not present.
Today, I would like to discuss another essential concept on which the development of your child’s motor skills depend: Vitality and Vigor vs Vulnerability and Fragility.
Does your child have the energy and vigor to accomplish all the demands that are placed on him/her throughout the day? ‘Hold your head up!’ ‘Straighten up!’ ‘Put one leg in front of the other!’ ‘Watch this video!’ ‘Crawl!’ ‘Go to school!’ ‘Do this… and do that...’ ‘Common, you can do it!’
Let’s have a closer look...
Where do healthy children get their energy resources?
Food (and of course, food absorption), digestion, hydration, respiration and sleep… these are the main fuel sources that allow them to respond to physical, intellectual and metabolic energy demands day after day. Once they have used up their energy throughout the day, when they go to bed, there is always a ‘surplus’ of energy left that allows them to grow and remodel throughout the night. Their battery is never totally dead.
What about a child with cerebral palsy (CP)? Food absorption is poorer, hydration is not ideal, respiration is far from optimal and sleep is rarely restorative. As a result, the child with CP cannot benefit from the same energy resources
his/her peers or siblings. Actually, these deficiencies take a heavy toll on your child’s overall energy and
a result, your child uses
least three times more energy
their peers, to carry out any activity,
it metabolic, intellectual or physical.
3 times more energy!!! Can you appreciate how significant this is?
This means they use three times
much energy to breathe, digest, move around and even just to stay seated in their wheelchair! If commuting to school is a one-hour journey, this corresponds to 3 hours of fatigue for your child with cerebral palsy… just on the way to school! The roundtrip to school and back creates 6 hours of fatigue every day, just to go to school and stimulation is not even accounted for yet. Would you personally
willing to face the fatigue that comes with commuting 6 hours a day to go to work? Five days a week?
As a result, a child with CP is usually exhausted, out of any ‘surplus’ that would allow him/her the ability to thrive and flourish
any other child.
Not convinced yet? Try to put yourself in your child’s shoes just for one day: imagine this…you have constant reflux, you are constipated, have mucus accumulated in your lungs and throat, you had a rough night…and your parents are still expecting you to perform various motor challenges: ‘hold your head’, ‘sit up’, ‘crawl’, ‘walk in your walker’… do you understand what they are feeling now?
Stimulation
all cost is not the answer! It has to
intelligently and strategically planned and applied. Otherwise, you override your child that already has to deal with metabolic, physical and sensory challenges.
Reinforcing fascia (connective tissues which surround and inter-penetrates all internal organs) improves metabolic functions automatically and spontaneously. The child starts breathing better, digesting better and sleeping better. Consequently, their energy level is tripled and interactions with their surroundings therefore improve.
This should
your first objective, regardless of the rehabilitation approach you choose to follow.
In the next few weeks, experiment with these 2 small changes in your child’s life:
Identify the activities that are energy consuming for your child;
Increase relaxation time (ie. down time); encourage moments of rest, away from noise and confusion; introduce soft music sessions.
Double their water intake.
With just these two small changes, your child will already feel a difference,
more relaxed and open to his/her environment and to you!
