Can My Child Benefit from Physical Therapy?
With so much information out there, it can be really hard to narrow down what information to listen to and what information applies to your unique situation. Navigating through the ocean of information from blogs, social media, videos, and more to figure out what will work for your family and your baby can be overwhelming and scary. At Year One Wellness, we strive to ease those feelings and provide recent and relevant information to help each specific child that comes to us.
What is a Pediatric Physical Therapist?
A pediatric physical therapist is someone who works with children and their families to assist each child in teaching their maximum potential to function independently and to promote active participation in their home, school, and community environments. Physical therapists promote health and wellness through movement, motor development, and body function (like strength, coordination, flexibility, etc). Pediatric physical therapists look at your baby’s whole body, every movement, to figure out how we can best help them achieve their milestones and reach them confidently.
What diagnoses can we treat?
Because of HOW we go about treating, pediatric physical therapists can treat all kinds of children with all kinds of challenges. We treat a variety of medical diagnoses including, but not limited to:
• Prematurity
• Torticollis & Flat Head Syndrome (Plagiocephaly)
• Feeding Difficulty
• Cerebral Palsy
• Down Syndrome
• Muscular Dystrophy
• Hip dysplasia
• Club foot
• Toe walking
• Developmental Delay
• Various genetic/orthopedic/neurological conditions
• And more…
Does my baby have to have a diagnosis to see a pediatric physical therapist?
No!
Are you wondering about if they are meeting milestones on time? Do you think their movement looks odd? Is your second baby doing things differently than your first baby?
These questions and more can be answered during a comprehensive physical therapy evaluation. So…what is involved with a physical therapy evaluation?
At a physical therapy evaluation, a licensed physical therapist will look at your baby’s movement, both big and small. The physical therapist will look at each body system (skeletal, muscular, nervous, etc) to see what is impacting their specific movements. The physical therapist will describe what they see and help to teach you how to recognize those same things. Once the physical therapist completes the evaluation, you will receive a summary of the findings, recommendations of continuing with physical therapy treatment if needed, and exercises tailored specifically to your baby’s needs.
I’m interested! What do I do now?
You may have heard our therapists talk about or say “we treat what we see.” In a nutshell, we treat each child for the specific and unique challenges they have. Physical therapy treatment is highly individualized and related to your baby’s movement.
For more information on if your baby would benefit from the individualized physical therapy treatment, feel free to reach out to us. Our team of clinicians are pediatric physical therapists and certified breastfeeding specialists, and we are here to help! Year One Wellness offers virtual consultation everywhere and in-person consultations in and around Austin, TX.
