Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Without a nose tube


Without a nose tube
Originally uploaded by andreas.lehnert
Max pulled out his nose tube early today. Carolyn and D. ("the baby whisperer") gave him all day to be free before they reinserted the tube. It was just as traumatic as you could imagine, with the tube emerging out of his mouth several times.

This picture is also a nice illustration of a phenomenon that occupational therapist C. pointed out to Carolyn today. Notice that Max is hunching his shoulders. He is using shoulder and back muscles to control his head. Of course, he should be trying to use his neck muscles, and C. showed Carolyn a few techniques to get him to relax his shoulders. Max didn't much care for the new way of doing business. But if Max is controlling his head pretty well using the wrong muscles, I hope he can take the next step and figure out how to use the right muscles.