Walk the line

Korri and I went to Children’s Specialty Center yesterday for her PT evaluation. As you may remember, at Korri’s 18 month well-child appt, her Ped thought it would be wise to have her gait assessed since her left foot continues to point inward and sometimes drags and trips her. The appt went VERY well! Although it broke my heart to have to wake her up at daycare when I came to pick her up. She fell back asleep in the car, so it must have been enough sleep since she did GREAT at the appt (after her mandatory warm-up time). Basically, on a scale from 0 to 100 (where 0 is no need to do anything and 100 is major problems that require weekly visits), he put her at a 15 (I put her at a 10!). Basically, he “diagnosed” her with weak muscles (not to be confused with low muscle tone, which is what Finn had/has) on her left side with a preference for her right side. The more she uses the left side, the more her foot will straighten out. She has always preferred her right side (even when she was crawling!), so it has gotten much stronger than her left. I’m so thankful that is “all” it is and nothing structural. She squats symmetrically, which is a really good sign. He gave me exercises to do (ha, I’m the queen of PT homework!) that “force” her to use her left side. One is to have her play in a half kneel with her left knee up and the other is to have her walk up and down the stairs, but not letting her lead with her preferred foot…very similar to things we’ve done with Finn. He didn’t think we NEEDED to come back, but put in an order in case we wanted to or if it gets worse. I don't anticipate having to make that appt. Yay, good news!