For many parents, the thought of taking their child to physical therapy can be daunting. However, pediatric physical therapy can provide a wide range of benefits for your baby’s development.
This type of therapy is key to improving motor skills to helping with breathing and feeding problems, pediatric physical therapy is an important part of ensuring that your baby grows into a healthy and happy individual.
What is pediatric physical therapy?
Pediatric physical therapy provides specialized care for children aged 0-21.
It helps babies and young children reach their developmental milestones. This therapy provides exercises and activities tailored to the child’s age and abilities.
It may also involve stretches, massage techniques, and other treatments. All this is to help improve balance, posture, coordination, strength, coordination, motor skills, flexibility and range of motion.
Benefits of the therapy
The benefits associated with pediatric physical therapy are numerous. Here are some of the most common:
- Improved Motor Skills – Through fun activities such as building towers or rolling balls back and forth with your baby, pediatric physical therapists can help your child improve his or her motor skills such as crawling and walking. This can help your baby gain independence earlier than expected.
- Improved Strength & Flexibility – Regularly participating in pediatric physical therapy sessions can help build strength in the muscles used for crawling or walking as well as increase flexibility in their arms and legs which can lead to better mobility overall.
- Improved Breathing & Feeding – Babies who experience difficulty eating or breathing due to medical conditions like GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) may benefit from PT sessions which focus on strengthening their core muscles which will help them better control their swallowing reflexes during feeding time as well as reduce symptoms of GERD.Â
- Improved Comfort & Confidence – By helping babies fine-tune their motor skills through play-based activities that are tailored specifically to them, pediatric physical therapists can make sure they are comfortable in their own skin whether it’s standing upright on two feet or simply rolling around on the floor. This improved comfort level helps boost confidence levels which is essential for any growing child!Â
Summary
All parents want what is best for their child. However sometimes it may take more than just hugs and kisses alone to ensure they reach all their milestones safely and quickly as possible!
If you feel like your little one isn’t reaching those goals at a pace that you feel comfortable with then consider speaking with a pediatric physical therapist about how they could potentially benefit from regular sessions!
With the right plan in place tailored specifically for your little one there’s nothing stopping them from reaching those goals quicker than ever before!