Late Preterm and Learning to Roll
Colleen started her physical therapy journey with her daughter, Zoe, when she was about nine months old. Zoe was born five weeks early and eventually faced some delays in certain milestones. Physical therapy helped her reach those goals, and Colleen shared their story with us here.
Our first baby, Zoe, was five weeks premature and considered late preterm. I was in the hospital with her for 24 days prior to her birth because of two rare conditions. While I was there, I gained a lot of knowledge from pediatricians, nurses, and other professionals. I asked a lot of questions about what to expect with my early bird. I believe knowledge is power and it is important to be informed.
We were told most of her milestones would be on a five-week delay because of the prematurity, which actually turned out to be very true for most things. Some things even came quicker, but when it came time to roll, our girl just did not want to do it.
Zoe rolled once at four weeks old and that was it. At six months old, it wasn’t a really big concern, but at nine months, it became one. We discussed physical therapy, but then I remembered about the five-week delays from being premature. I told our pediatrician she was late preterm and five weeks early, so our doctor said we could try for another five weeks to get her to roll. She did not roll.
Back we went to the doctor, and this time was harder, because they had to give a diagnosis for the physical therapy. As a mother, it was extremely hard to hear a diagnosis of “developmentally delayed.” Thankfully, we have an amazing pediatrician who reminded me that the diagnosis was just for now, not forever. We were given a referral for physical therapy and to the Early On program, an early intervention program in Michigan. Early On is a great resource offered to all children under the age of three in Michigan. It’s free if the child qualifies, and it offers much more than physical therapy.
We started physical therapy about a week after the diagnosis, and we found it very helpful. It was a good experience. Really, you just go there to play. It’s all new toys and activities for your child, and they honestly have no idea they are in therapy.
We started working on rolling with specific exercises and mermaid pants, which are spandex shorts with legs sewn together, given to us by the physical therapist. The mermaid pants create more core strength, and between the exercises and the additional core strength she gained from the pants, she caught on pretty quickly. But, of course, she would only roll in one direction. We then worked on more exercises to encourage Zoe to roll the other way.
After she mastered rolling, we moved on to crawling. At that point, she was behind on that. So, there was more play and more exercises. After appointments every two weeks for five months, our little girl graduated and was on the move! She was a very late walker, taking her first steps at 17 months and finally walking around 18-19 months, but she’s now almost three and entirely caught up. She doesn’t stop moving and has great coordination!
