getting them to walk, help!

[keepingmesane]

hi all, my twins are 4 in oct and we are having difficulty getting them to walk much. kieran will walk short ways around somewhere he wants to be (like the park) but often wants to be in the buggy or stands with arms up to be carried, if we try to get him to walk then we just get him throwing a paddy on the floor or he will just not move (he is too big to carry about and its equally just not possible when i have 4 small children) kieran just seems to sit placidly and take everything in, he always has been like that.

jas used to walk at least a fair amount before getting tired (she has mild right hemiplegia so i understand the tiredness)jas wants to be into everything and enjoys going out but for the last few months she wont walk much at all. in fact my two year old walks more than them without once asking for pick up or buggy.

 

i dont know what to do next tbh! they are quite tall children so are getting too big and heavy for a buggy, but i cant just stay at home until they decide they can walk.

am i supposed to be tougher on them? i just cant see a way to force them to move as it just doesnt work. my parents and sister also have great difficulty getting them to walk more, when they are having one to one they will walk a little farther than normal but its still not much compared to peers. and its a major problem if you try walking them somewhere and then they have a major meltdown.

 

anyone else had this problem? im worried that if i bring it up to their 'professionals' that i will be laughed out the door and just told to 'make' them walk

i know they are still kind of young so im trying not to expect too much but i simply cant keep pushing the four of them around in buggies.. i can see my younger two ditching the buggy before them

Edited July 9, 2007 by keepingmesane

[peppa]

Hi im having very similar problems at the moment, dd just turned 4 last monday, we ditched the pushchair a couple of months after turning 3, however recently ive had to start using it again.

 

Im lucky if i get two minites walking round the corner with her before shes asking to be carried.

 

I had an incident a few weeks ago when i collected her from school with my mum,( we always walk home on the tuesday as i wanted to try get her used to doing this incase dp wasn't available to drive us). We'd managed two minites walking when dd began asking to be carried, i coaxed her to walk a little further when she began climbing my legs and screaming to be picked up, i explained she could have a little carry till we got to the library (which was in veiw) then she would have to walk again, She seemed to accept this but when i tried to put her down she gripped on to me like a leech, i wasnt able to flex my arms to even lower her to the ground without her screaming at full pelt, she also wouldn't allow my mum to carry her instead and no amount of reasoning was going to get her to walk! Needless to say things escalated and we ended up sat on the pavement for over half an hour whilst dd had a meltdown! and i had to phone dh to come and collect us.

 

Afterwards i suffered with spasms in my arms due to not being able to flex my arm straight.

 

Now i always take the pushchair with us, i always try to get her to walk then when she becomes tired she gets in the pushchair, it usually works. However she is quite tall and lanky so will soon outgrow the pushchair!

 

Shes recently began telling me shes tired and her legs are hurting, however physio said she has no major problems but does have low muscle tone in her legs, however dd wasn't overly cooperative when she was assessed so a full assessment wasn't given.

 

Ive mentioned this to her assessment team and they've just said its a control thing and its just her trying to create order and predictability in her world, also that it could be more due to sensory issues and she maybe feels more protected from therse when in her pushchair.

 

I'm not convinced and am a little worried, as if i have ever managed to get her to walk very far she needs to rest for a long time afterwards and quite often says her legs are hurting or falls asleep!!

 

Sorry for waffling! know thats probably not much help, just wanted to let you know you're not alone with this.

I'd be intrested also to hear what others think, xx

[jb1964]

Hi, we still have this problem and my daughter is 14. She doesn't go out anywhere other than school - and when she walks anywhere she makes it look like hard work - even from the car into reception she drags her legs as if they weigh a tonne and she looks exhausted when she does it - she will moan and moan and hang onto your arm pulling you down if she has to walk anywhere that isn't only 2 mins.

 

When she was young - she went in her buggy until she was around 6yrs old because she would just scream and refuse to walk - and I can even remember taking the buggy on holidays as well when she was around 7 just to make it easy (she was very small for her age so we were lucky she still fitted in there!!).

 

She says her legs hurt when she walks and that she feels so tired that she feels like she could collapse - she also gets very very hot when she walks as well - which she doesn't cope with at all.

 

Take care,

Jb

[forbsay]

Hello

 

I used to have these problems with my son when he was little. I used to put one of these wrist walker things on him (probably wrong word!) and around the streets near our house - just little short journeys and built them up into longer ones. Now he walks no problem........

 

Forbsay

xx

[MichelleW]

I had this problem with J, and still do. He will only walk across the road from his school before complaining that it hurts to walk. He also walks funny and sometimes tries walking on the edge of his shoes or kicks his legs out to side. He likes walking backwards so I tell him to walk backwards which helps. I laughed when I saw an autistic girl doing this on a tv programme because I hadn't realised that it was an autistic "thing" and on the programme they said it was because the children get distressed by what was in front of them!

 

Anyway, when I had my second one nearly 3 years ago, I got a buggy board which lasted about a week before it broke. So for the last 3 years, J has just stood on the back of the pushchair basket when I have the pushchair with DS2 in it. And he sits in the disabled child shopping trolly while little one is in the seat (he is too heavy for a normal trolly seat now!) so not much room for shopping!

 

But that is why I get the mobility element of DLA, because it is a disability, and not just them being lazy. I believe it really does hurt them somehow! Now I have 2 like it, I am looking into getting help with a volunteer group so that I can have 2 disabled child trollys. Maybe you could look into a similar volunteer group if you need an extra pair of hands to push a double buggy.