Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Tattoos for the Terrible Twos, like they need more attitude

If you squint you might see the remains of a pink and purple butterfly on Hannah's inner arm - tattooed on with airbrushed paint at the local street fair last weekend. The point of putting it on her inner arm is to inspire her to twist her arm to see it, because evidently supination is difficult for folks with her condition. The other idea is to use an interesting watch, worn on the inner arm, but we haven't gone far with that technique as no watch is small enough to put on Hannah and Claire keeps taking the watch we did get but have yet to find a pokey tool to size it down.





Now don't all go running off using this idea until you check out the paint. I did the tattoo on a whim, and although I would have liked it to last I was also secretly pleased that it came off in case it turned out to be melamine and BPA-laced made in China paint. I am a little gun shy about my "creative" therapy ideas after finding out that the receipts I'd been saving and using for about nine months to encourage opening and closing her hand were likely a bigger load of BPA than all the baby bottles we didn't use because I at least knew to avoid them. (Google BPA in receipts to get a gutful of data) The only bright spot in the great OT receipt fiasco at my house is that Starbucks typically has very low or no BPA so a lot of our receipts were clean. Ahem. My machiato addiction may be bleeding my checking account dry but at least it is not poisoning the baby. Yet.

3 comments:

  1. I love the creative ways you approach therapy for her. I really do. :D

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  2. Try putting stickers inside her right hand, on her palm. The idea is the same has the painted arm. She has to supinate (sp?) her hand so that she can see the sticker and take it off. Try the smelly stickers too, she'll have to turn her hand as she brings it to her face to smell it, or fuzzy ones to feel...you get the idea. It works well for us, and at the very least, it encourages bilateral play, always a biggie! You know!

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  3. I have to think of some crafty ideas just now, because the doctor told us Charlie's looking only to the right if you leave him to it. He'll be fine if we force him to look the other way all the time. Not easy with a small baby. I know this is nothing compared to the stuff you're all going through, but seeing how hard this small task is makes me admire all the stuff you must do even more. And wonder how you manage.

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