THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO RESPONDED TO MY QUESTION. I WILL TRY OUT
THE ELBOW EXPENSION ORTHOSES. THIS IS MY ORIGINAL QUESTION.
I received a request to provide an intellectually disabled child with a
modified helmet to prevent him from putting dirt, rubbish and anything in
his mouth. My initial reaction was that this is a bit to extensive and to
visible. I hope that someone can help me with a more cosmetically
acceptable solution.
Kind regards
Peter Lendfers
THESE ARE THE ANSWERS I GOT.
How about gloves or mittens that will prevent him from being able to pick
up the objects/materials of concern???
Peter,
What is the age of the child? Have you considered elbow orthoses with 90
degree flexion locks at the elbows?
Tom Lunsford, CO
Hi Peter
I would have thought that a pair of elbow orthoses which limit flexion
(such
that the child can no longer reach his face) would be preferable. I have
been called on to make a few like this for self mutilators, some years
ago.
They would also have the 2 advantages of minimal interference with other
activities, and better cosmetic result.
Good luck,
Roy
Peter,
I’ve put many helmets on patients to protect from falls and/or
seizures. I agree that this sounds like overkill for what they are
trying to do but can’t offer an elegant alternative. I’d encourage
you to continue to search for one but, at the same time, to discuss
this with your patient’s parents or caregivers. If the problem is of
great concern to them, I suspect that they will advise you to go
ahead with the helmet. Few of my patients with helmets resent them
and many are lost without them.
Harold Anderson
Danmar makes some helmets with faceguards…but my first reaction also is
that a behavior plan is needed as well as a restraint or else the problem
will not likely improve and may worsen. Do they have a psychologist or
special ed resource center where they can begin to address the behavior?
I know some places it is very tough to find a behavior specialst with
expertise for lower funcitoning folks (cognitively) but if one can be
found they can really do great things given a good team and family to
carry it through.
Vikki Stefans, pediatric physiatrist (rehab doc for kids) and working
Mom of Sarah T. and Michael C., aka [email protected]
Arkansas Children’s Hospital/ U of A for Medical Sciences, Little Rock
…and EVERY mom is a working mom! (OK, dads too…)
Hi Peter!
I had a patient (psych. disabled) who ate from his fingers and also
put all sorts of rubbish in his mouth. We made custom-fit elbow
braces with flexion stops to prevent this. It worked fine.
Kjell-Ake Nilsson, CPO at Linkoping University Hospital, Sweden.
G’day Peter,
At the last ARATA conference a helmut video was shown, quite simple.
It was the Dutch design that we reported in the TechLINK some
time ago. An orthotist went to the Spastic centre(?) ( Leura NSW) and
fortunately they videoed the procedure.
I didn’t pay a lot of attention but the contact is Yvonne de Vries
02 4784 1611,
Also a reosonable write up in the conference proceedings (which I
won’t re type for you)….See the movie, read the book later!!
Good luck
Bill
Bill Contoyannis, Manager, REHAB Tech
Tel: 61 3 9528 1960, Fax: 61 3 95281077,
e-mail: [email protected]
Internet:http://www.monash.edu.au/rehabtech/staff/bill.htm
Danmar Products has some “kind” helmets with face mask options to
possibly
stop this action. 1.800.783.1998…..pkm
Hi Peter
A suggestion to your problem may be to use simple vecro/orthoplast
removable elbow shells to restrict excess elbow flexion, applied as
required?.
regarsd Ben
—
PO `!1 a
