What else can we celebrate in October that is near and dear to my heart?
National Physical Therapy Month!
In my other life, outside of my home, I am a physical therapist. I began as an outpatient pediatric physical therapist. As an outpatient pediatric therapist, I worked with a lot of children who were simply delayed in there development (please put your babies on their bellies to play!), children with cerebral palsy, down’s syndrome and other syndromes and many children with torticollis. I love this area of physical therapy and this is where my main passion in PT remains.
However, life does move us into different paths and paths that put us out of our comfort zone for a reason. I have since worked in acute care (general hospital physical therapy helping those after surgery) and outpatient adult physical therapy. Presently, I am working at Levine Children’s Hospital on the Acute Rehabilitation Floor(children who have suffered a brain injury, spinal cord injury or who are very deconditioned), and I volunteer at the Our Towns Free Medical Clinic in Davidson (mainly adult orthopedics, but it can be anything).
I know that I am biased on the area of physical therapy. I have seen the many benefits of physical therapy. Physical therapists have amazing little tricks and bits of info that can make your life much easier and most of the time, much less painful. They are also very informed in the area of wellness. Since wellness is not covered by most insurance companies, we do not get to use our wellness knowledge as often as we wish we could. If you are getting ready to start training for a long race, to start a new job with new physical demands or are a new parent, speaking with a physical therapist can help you prevent an injury.
For more information on physical therapy and all physical therapists can do, check out http://www.apta.org!
Simple Days Make for an Exciting Adventure 
Do you have any suggestions for a child who walks on their tiptoes? Exercises to do or anything like that? 🙂 My son is two and is a major tiptoer. He wears StrideRite shoes which are very flexible, and his pediatrician recommends therepy but we are unable to right now.
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Two is such a tough age with this. Many kids are just plain toe walkers at this stage (I had one-she still walks on her toes). Others, do need therapy. Some ideas to try are walking backwards (that should get him to put his heels down) and climbing up the slide to stretch his heel cords. However, many times if the ped recommended it, you may want to go in just for a consult. I would let the PT know when you make the appointment that you just want an evaluation and some suggestions for home. If only we were closer! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
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Thank you so much!! I told the pediatrician last week (at Sam’s 2 year check-up) of your recommendations and she LOVED them because she said she will have some practical suggestions to give parents in the future. You should have seen her face! 😀
I’m going to try to get him to walk backwards, and he already loves climbing up slides. Thanks again!
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I hope it helps. I do wish that PTs and pediatricians had a better relationship-as in, we got the chance to chat! 🙂 Again, if you still see the toe walking-go visit your local PT! 🙂
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