Morty Tries Out Gait Trainers

A gait trainer is like a walker but for babies.  They're usually designed to have a special support system to help hold kids like Morty, who, for instance, has "high tone" in his legs and arms and "low tone" in his trunk.  This means that his legs and arms get stiff, but he's got a kinda floppy core.  Also, with Cerebral Palsy, the inner thigh muscles can be over active and pull his legs in when he walks, giving a "scissor legs" appearance.  And kids with tone issues can get intermittantly tired.  There are different parts of gait trainers designed to help with these things.

We have been "walking" with Morty for over a year...  Allison had been doing it with him when he was in the infant room at daycare when all the other kids were learning to walk, and that's all he wanted to do at home too.  Here's a video from August 2010, when he was only around 9 months old:



Then here's another video from May 2011, when he was about 17 months old:



If he could do that all the time, he would have loved it.  But it's a little back breaking on Mom & Dad. 

The last time we went to see Dr. Donna Nimec (his physiatrist), Nancy (his PT) brought up getting a gait trainer.  Dr. Nimec put in the order to go to the equipment clinic at Childrens and we got an appointment.  This appointment is designed for Morty to try out a bunch of different types of gait trainers before we purchase one (through insurance).  Unfortunately, that didn't get scheduled for a few months - out into early February.

But... through Priscilla at the Respite Center daycare, we got a loaner gait trainer for Morty to try last week.  It was a Rifton Pacer.  I was so EXCITED - I watched all the videos on the Rifton website and tried to set it up as best as I could.  As it turns out, it was missing a few parts like the arm rests and the leg straps (to help with the scissoring), but we had Morty try it out anyway.  It was Meghan's day off, but she was so excited that she came over with Maya to check it out too (she watches Morty's friend Maya on Thursdays now)  Here's a couple of videos of him in the Pacer:

first tries:


and later that evening after a nap:


He LOVED walking around in the things.  I did notice a few things:
1.  Extension - his legs particularly would go into crazy extension - to the point that they were almost locked and it was hard for him to remember to bend his knees to actually move his leg.  Once he got into the flow, he did pretty good - until he got excited again and his legs stiffened up.
2.  Scissoring - his leg movements (when he did bend his knees and move) were all over the place and often scissored.  I knew we were missing the leg straps that are designed to help hold his legs out and prevent the scissoring
3.  Forward Momentum - Morty primarily did the best when we actually moved the gait trainer for him.  It was difficult for him to get into a forward leaning position and then move his legs.  I did try making adjustments to the chest strap to help that, but it was still difficult for him.

In spite of all this - he loves the gait trainer so much that he literally cries when we take him out.

Then... yesterday we had the Snugseat Rep come to the house to demo a toilet seat and bath seat for Morty (he is both going to the bathroom daily on the toilet AND getting too big for his infant tub)  After those demos, we asked him about what gait training equipment they had.  He happened to have the new "Mustang" demo in his van.  Yay!  So we got to demo that equipment also - with the rep and Nancy there.

Here he is, moments after strapping him into the Mustang:


and then about 5 or 10 minutes later:


I'm not totally sure the videos capture it, but it was immediately obvious to me that the Mustang was a better piece of equipment for Morty

1.  No Scissoring - the Mustang is set up with more of a "saddle" type bar rather than a sling.  This automatically prevented him from scissoring by holding his legs apart at the crotch.  I can see how this would be more advantageous than straps, which almost exercise his scissoring strength.
2.  Positioning - the Mustang put him into a position that made forward steps almost intuitive.  While he did sometimes kind of lock his legs, the positioning allowed him to sort of use his extension to his advantage and made it somewhat natural to take a step.
3.  Head Control - something about the Mustang got him to hold his head in better alignment.  He did do a lot of looking down to check his feet out.  But when he was holding his head up, it was straight.

After that visit, we decided to go ahead with the Mustang.  The rep now sends a quote to our DMO dealer, who will then bill the insurance company.  We expect that we'll have a Mustang of our own in about 3 months.  So long!  I hope Morty (and I) can wait!  What an exciting time - this is real progress for Morty - who will probably now be known as "Mustang Morty"