So in our last post, I talked about The Institutes. In this post, I will talk about the other therapy we looked into, The Anat Baniel Method. I was introduced to the Anat Baniel Method (or ABM for short) by many of the other preemie mommies that I have met online. I must say that I am very thankful to live in a day and age where connecting with other people in similar situations is only a few clicks away. So on many of the other Micro Preemie mommy blogs that I read, I kept hearing how many of them were doing a therapy called ABM. What is ABM? In short, ABM evolved from the earlier work of a man named Moshe Feldenkrais. His approach is more a form of self-education through movement as opposed to manipulative therapy that traditional therapies are based on (like physical and occupational therapy). What does this mean? In short, the therapy shows a person (or baby!) how to find their place in space by using movement. (This is the best way I can describe the method without having yet read Anat's book. I promise I will Lindsay!). Anat was a student of Feldenkrais, and she evolved the therapy into her own method that she calls the Anat Baniel Method (named after herself!). Here is a video straight from her website that includes testimonies and a description of the method.
How is ABM different from The Institutes? In short, you can bring your child to a certified practitioner who has been trained by Anat's center up in Northern California. For many of my fellow micro preemie mommies in other states, finding a practitioner was a challenge. For them, practitioner's were few and far between in states on the other side of the country, since it would require that those practitioner's would have to travel to get trained in Northern California, then go back to their home state to build their practice. And since this method is still in it's infancy of gaining acceptance, few practitioner's have discovered this method. In my search for a local practitioner, I was lucky to find out that there was one 10 MINUTES FROM MY HOUSE! Kind of a sign, huh? Each session would be similar in cost to a traditional therapy session, but would not be covered by insurance or our state Regional Center. Still, it was considerably less than The Institutes, and since a practitioner was so close to me, I figured ABM might be our method of choice. I know some mommies in other states who have to travel 4 hours to their nearest practitioner, or even travel out of state, so I feel pretty blessed in that aspect. So what would a session look like? Here is a sample video with a simple description:
While it doesn't look like much, I was told by our practitioner over the phone that in the FIRST FEW SESSIONS I would start to see results. Say what? Needless to say, I was intrigued............... (Part 3 to follow.........)
So in our last post I talked about therapies we were exploring for Colin. When we were discharged from the NICU, we were advised that we should start providing Physical, Occupational and Early Intervention therapies as soon as possible. The medical doctors advised us that this would give Colin the best option to overcome some of the setbacks he had from the NICU and overcome any physical disabilities caused by his brain bleed. As I have mentioned in various posts, in California, the state provides automatic funding for therapies for kids that were born with "An Established Risk Condition". In Colin's case, because he was born so early and suffered a brain bleed, he automatically qualified. However, the drawback to allowing the state to pay for the funding is that they mandate how many sessions they believe would be beneficial for Colin for a predetermined amount of time. For this reason, I decided to go through our insurance for his Occupational Therapy and let the state pay for the other two. I considered Occupational therapy as the most important one, because this was going to help him to transition from using his G-tube to eating by mouth. Well, we soon started all 3 therapies, and all were going good. Lucky for us, Colin didn't need much help with Occupational Therapy, and he switched from his G-tube to eating with a bottle with no problem. Yet over time, I was still feeling like the therapies were ALOT OF WORK. For those with special needs kids doing therapies, you find that your life is CONSUMED with so much time going to therapies, preparing for therapies, and planning therapies. And as you can tell below, sometimes it got to Colin too.
Colin pooping out DURING a therapy!
Colin seemed to enjoy his Early Intervention therapy very much. This therapy pretty much consisted of him "playing" with his therapist. Basically she would show him toys to help his eyes track, or expose him to different textures and sounds, etc. You could literally see his little brain light up with interest during this time. The other therapies really focused on having him meet his milestones for his age, like rolling over, holding his head up, etc. These he usually DIDN'T enjoy as much. He would be polite for the first 5 minutes, then the rest of the time, he would fuss and sometimes cry while he was put into positions he didn't enjoy, like tummy time. Tummy time is done by ALL parents to help ensure that their kids can be on their tummy to hold up their head and eventually crawl. (This is a little info for your non-kiddo parents!) So to make sure were were exhausting ALL our options, we started looking into alternative therapies. We focused on two: Anat Baniel Method and The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential. In this post, I'll talk about The Institutes. "The Institutes..." (for short) was recommended by Colin's wonderful NICU nurse Krystal, who has become part of our family and whose opinion we value MOST HIGHLY.
Colin getting some attention from Krystal on his discharge day!
She had known a few families that had gone through this program and had seen REMARKABLE results in their kids. Because she had this first hand knowledge, I was intrigued by what it could offer. In a nutshell, the Institutes was started in 1955 by Glenn Doman. Many of you are probably already familiar with him, as he created the "Your Baby Can Read" program. After working with many patients with brain injuries over the years, the Institutes created a program that they believe can reverse or eliminate the effects of brain damage.
Parents are required to travel to their center in Pennsylvania and complete a weeklong intensive training course that teaches them how to work with their child. The program that the child will complete at home is intensive, and consists of:
Patterning – manipulation of limbs and head in a rhythmic fashion
Creeping – forward bodily movement with the abdomen in contact with the floor
Crawling – forward bodily movement with the abdomen raised from the floor
Receptive stimulation – visual, tactile and auditory stimulation
Expressive activities – e.g. picking up objects
Masking – breathing into a rebreathing mask to increase the amount of carbon dioxide inhaled, which is believed to increase cerebral blood flow
Brachiation – swinging from a bar or vertical ladder
Gravity/Antigravity activities – rolling, somersaulting and hanging upside down.
Once home, starting the program requires 3 adults, completing some of these tasks daily every hour for a certain amount of time. Then the child is reevaluated over time, and the program is adjusted for the improvements. Below is a sample video of what a typical session at home would look like. No need to watch the WHOLE thing, but a few minutes of viewing and you will get the gist.
Here is another video that shows some of the equipment that parents would use at home.
Pretty intense, right? But look at some of the amazing results:
This little girl has similar issues to Colin.
For us, we are VERY fortunate to say that money is not an issue for us. We are willing to travel to the ends of the earth for Colin, no matter what it costs. And needless to say, this program not only costs money (not just to complete the course, but to travel there, buy the equipment, etc.), but would require lots of time and energy on our part. But was this the right decision?............ (Next post we will talk about the other method we were looking into, Anat Baniel Method).
