Jenny Roy, Pediatric Physiotherapist

✨ New offering! Combined Parent and Baby Physiotherapy Assessment! ✨

You all know that I am trained in pediatric physiotherapy, but you may not know that I am also trained in pelvic health physiotherapy! 🫄👶

Since I already treat post-partum individuals as well as newborns, I decided to provide an option where they could be seen together at the same time, rather than two separate appointments! 🤱

This will be a 90-minute appointment (45 minutes for parent, 45 minutes for baby). We can address any concerns you may have regarding your postpartum recovery as well as your baby's physical development. I also welcome those who don't have any specific concerns, but would like a general physiotherapy check to be proactive! 🎉

Contact me or today to book, or book online! ☎

🏳‍🌈 Happy National Pride Month!!

My wish for all of my clients, no matter their age, is that they can grow up in a world with unconditional acceptance for whoever they choose to be, and who they choose to love 🌈

🤔 What is proprioception???

👣 Proprioception is a term used a lot in physiotherapy... so let's make sure we all understand what it really means!

🚀 Proprioception is generally how we know where our bodies are in space. It is ESSENTIAL that we have proprioception, or else we would not be able to function! Proprioception allows us to be able to walk without looking at our feet, keep ourselves from falling when we step on a squishy surface, throwing a ball into a basketball net, etc.!

🎉 How does proprioception work?

🧠 Proprioception is basically a continuous feedback loop between sensory receptors in your body and your nervous system. These receptors are located in your skin, muscles and joints. They send information about the amount of stretch or tension that they feel to the brain. That information tells your brain about the position of a body part, so that it can come up with a plan to maintain or change that position.

☄ What happens if my proprioception system is not working well?

🤸 In children who have difficulties with proprioception, you might notice that they are extra clumsy and uncoordinated. You might also notice sensory seeking behaviours, such as writing too hard, loving to crash into things or jump off the couch, not reacting as much when they get hurt, and liking really deep-pressure cuddles. They also might have decreased body awareness, so they may bump into people or objects more often and have difficulty with things like riding a bike!

💙 Cerebral palsy has such a broad spectrum! Depending on which part of your brain is affected, it will be a different type of CP, and different individuals experience it in different parts of their bodies. The classification is based both on the type and the body involvement. An example would be "spastic diplegia".

💫The most common type of cerebral palsy is spastic. Even within this group, there is still a large spectrum of how it may affect someone! The type does not necessarily matter, however as a physio, it's important to know in order to develop a plan of treatment.

🧡 It's also important to remember not to make any assumptions based on someone's diagnosis. No matter what type of cerebral palsy someone has, or what body region is affected; make sure to think of everyone as a whole individual and not define them by a diagnosis! Our similarities are always more numerous than our differences.

🌟In order to help with voiding dysfunction, we must first understand the regular voiding cycle!

💜 PHASE 1: BLADDER FILLING/STORAGE

⌛After the bladder is emptied, it starts to then fill again with urine. At first, it is a low-pressure reservoir and can fill comfortable without any stretch on the walls of the bladder. This typically lasts 2-4 hours.

💜 PHASE 2: TRANSITION

🚴 As the bladder continues to fill with more urine, the pressure in the bladder becomes higher. There are stretch receptors in the walls of the bladder and the posterior urethra that get triggered, which send a message to your brain that give you the perception that you have an urge to void. Then, our brain tells our pelvic floor muscles to contract, which keeps us from urinating. We can then transport ourselves to the bathroom.

💜 PHASE 3: EMPTYING

🚽 When we are in a safe place to void, our brain can switch from inhibiting urination to allowing it. Our detrusor muscle (the muscle of our bladder that makes up the walls) contracts so that urine can exit. The bladder outlet (the passageway from bladder to urethra) opens to allow urine into the urethra. Our pelvic floor muscles also relax so that the urinary opening can open and allow urine to pass from our urethra to the toilet.

If you're having any issues with urination, there may be a problem in one or all of these phases. This can happen in both children and adult. These issues might include withholding urine for too long, incontinence, not being able to hold on before getting to a bathroom, painful urination, etc. If this is the case, physiotherapy can help retrain your bladder to function more optimally.

🌀 All about the VESTIBULAR SYTEM!!! 🌀

🤔 *What is the vestibular system?*

The vestibular system is made up of 5 tiny organs in your inner ear!
🧡 3 "semicircular canals": these detect *angular* accelerations (head rotations)
💛 2 "otoliths": these detect *linear* accelerations (straight-line movements)

❔ *What does the vestibular system do?*

👂The vestibular system collects information in your environment about the position of your head in space. This is extremely important for your balance and spatial orientation! It tells us where are bodies are in our environments, so that our brain can tell our bodies how to respond accordingly to keep ourselves upright and safe! This is essential to our balance, spatial orientation, bilateral coordination, etc.

❔*What does it mean if I have a sensitive vestibular system?*

😵‍💫 If you have a "sensitive" vestibular system, you may find that you feel nauseous or uncomfortable with things like swings, balance beams, biking, skateboarding, etc. It's also common to experience more carsickness! If this is the case for you, it is important to challenge your vestibular system. This is so that the threshold of when your system is overloaded changes, so a negative response doesn't happen as quickly.

💩 Constipation is SOOO common in kids! In fact, it's so common that we are taught to assume kids are constipated unless proven innocent.

🤔 We usually assume that constipation means you're only going to the bathroom every few days. However, there's more to it than that.

⌛ Not p**ping daily IS a sign of constipation. It means that our p**p is staying too long in our colon, which can cause lots of other issues like belly aches, bed wetting, etc.

🦣 When we don't evacuate daily, our stool builds and builds. You might notice your kid having p**ps that seem way too big for their little bodies, or even clogging the toilet. This is a big sign of constipation, and something to pay attention to! If this cycle goes on too long, it can actually stretch out your child's re**um.

☹ When p**ps are too large or too hard, this can be quite uncomfortable to evacuate. Your child might tell you that it hurts, or they might avoid it altogether. You might notice this by them clenching their bum cheeks, squeezing their legs together, etc. This is called stool withholding, and can lead to dangerous cycles! They may also complain of general belly aches, because their belly is hard and distended.

⭐ If you're noticing any signs of constipation in your child, it's important to try to address it sooner than later. Long-term constipation can cause difficulties with our bladder and bowel function as well as other health issues.

The CDC recently changed the timelines for certain gross motor milestones, and eliminated crawling from the checklist. So, I thought it was a good time to highlight some of the benefits of crawling! It's important to remember that there's more to milestones than meets the eye... crawling doesn't just allow a baby a way to move... it's so important in developing the brain and neural pathways that lead to other skills as they grow! Check out some of the awesome things that crawling does for a baby's development:

1️⃣ Strengthening! 💪🏽Crawling allows baby to equally strengthen both sides of their bodies, which will be beneficial later on when they are learning to jump, skip, gallop, etc! 🤾🏾‍♀️

2️⃣ Bilateral Coordination! ⚖️The reciprocal movements of crawling help baby to develop neural pathways from one side of the brain to the other. This is hugely important later on in other activities like walking, riding a bike, and climbing!🚴🏾🧗🏻‍♂️🚶‍♂️

3️⃣ Depth perception! 👀Crawling is hugely important for babies to develop depth perception because it is the first time they will see a target, and then figure out how long it takes to get there in a horizontal plane! 👁👶

4️⃣ Sensory development! 🧠Crawling allows your baby to explore their environment independently for the first time and come across so many different textures, heights, and other sensory experiences! 👃👂👀👣

5️⃣ Cognitive development! 🧠 Being mobile comes with many questions for baby! How do I get around this toy that’s in my way? How do I get up over that step? While these problems may seem simple to the adult brain, these experiences are hugely important to develop problem solving strategies for baby! 🕵️‍♂️🧩

👶 Plagiocephaly.... a big word that simply translates into flat head - you may have heard of "flat head syndrome" before, which is just another term for plagiocephaly.

🧐 Plagiocephaly can occur for a variety of reasons. It is often associated with "torticollis" where there is an asymmetry or tightness in muscles of the neck. This causes a baby to have a preference to rotate their neck to one side. Since they spend so much time lying down on their back, and their skulls are still relatively soft, that constant pressure on one part of their skull can result in a flat spot.

👀 It is important to monitor your babies head shape to become aware of flat spots, so that you can help them to reduce pressure to that spot. Try changing the head of the crib every few days, placing toys on their non-dominant side, etc. to encourage them to rotate away from their flat spot.

⭐ Physio can help with plagiocephaly by addressing the muscle imbalances that perpetuate it, addressing the fascia surrounding the skull and promoting gross motor development and positional skills that encourage a round head shape. If you notice a mild flat spot in your baby, it is important to address it as early as possible. Before about 9 months of age, there is still time where the skull is still malleable and soft, but after that it becomes harder and more difficult to reshape.

🔍 Aside from checking for flat spots in the back of the head, check your babe's forehead and ears. A more moderate to severe plagiocephaly can cause the ears to become asymmetrical and the facial features to become asymmetrical - resulting in a bulge in one side of the forehead.