Hanging Belly not the Belly's Fault

Ayden Jane is down off this last spurt and we are seeing more great things. However, it seems we also have to deal with a bit of fall out as well.

I e-mailed Jen yesterday to give her a heads up that Ayden Jane is really sticking out her belly. When she is just standing still it looks a bit like a gymnast having just finished a routine and throwing up her hands and arching her back. I am really not sure sometimes how she does not fall over! Now as long as she is active and moving, she lines up much better, but when she is in a static stand, well, YUCK is the best way I can describe it.

So we had therapy shirtless today and Jen tried to address the belly. She was not happy at all with the posture! She tried cueing some muscles... and ended up using kinesio tape on AJ's belly. Ayden Jane calls it her super belly. Then Jen was still not able to get AJ into the correct posture so off went the long pants! Jen found the root of the problem was in her knees! I certainly did not think to look there! Basically, when standing still AJ is hyper extending her knees and 'hanging' on her ligaments at her hips for stability instead of keeping muscles turned on.

Okay, stand up. Lock your knees, let your hips fall forward relaxing all belly and upper body muscles and let gravity take over. Yep, a bit like being 9 months pregnant. Now, bend your knees just slightly so you have to turn on your quads. Amazing how everything else turns on isn't it? So Jen did lots of things with AJ that made it so she had to keep everything turned on. We had AJ in a big saucer standing on a stool so that she had to keep it all activated to keep her balance as she reached for a toy or put together pegs. She had her stand with one foot up on a couple of books. She even had AJ roller skating through the house.

We are going to give Ayden Jane the week to sort out her 'new' body from this last spurt and then Jen will decide if we need to block her knees. I don't really know what that means, but it has something to do with not allowing her to lock out her knees... It has happened before that as Ayden Jane goes through a growth spurt it takes a while for her body to sort itself out, so we are hoping that is all that is going on. I am so glad that I have Jen to keep such a close eye on AJ. She manages to correct things before they become too much of a habit or are able to cause any structural issues.

I will try to get some video of Ayden Jane tomorrow. She has the most adorable little gallop now when she goes from place to place and her run is looking good. Words just can't do them justice.