https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 22 May 2026 12:28:01 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2819214 Sun, 29 Apr 2018 11:53:09 +0000 PinkElephant 2819214@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Starfish: Thanks! Those look like they might work, and they're cuter than wearing high top sneakers all the time! It's hard because summer + supportive shoes don't really go hand in hand - my older girls have worn exclusively Old Navy jellies the past few years. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2819212 Sun, 29 Apr 2018 10:05:38 +0000 Mrs. Starfish 2819212@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: Hi there! We also struggled with this and my MIL took Audrey to a special shoe store and spent like an hour working with an expert on appropriate shoes. We landed on these: <a href="https://www.striderite.com/en/srtech-emilia-shoe/12663B.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.striderite.com/en/srtech-emilia-shoe/12663B.html</a></p> <p>They were pretty cute at that age! And the high tops supported her foot well. And I liked that they matched most of her outfits. :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2819211 Sun, 29 Apr 2018 09:57:09 +0000 PinkElephant 2819211@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Starfish: @karen: Bumping this to see if either of you have recommendations on shoes for low-tone kiddos. DD3 is 18 months and walking assisted by holding fingers for balanc (not alone yet). Her PT would like me to find shoes that are slightly more supportive at the ankle than what we currently wear (pedi-ped mary janes), but still have a flexible sole. I showed her some Surprize by Stride Rite shoes I thought fit the bill, and she still wasn't pleased (too low on the sides, too stiff in the footbed). Any brands/styles that have worked well for your child?! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813274 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 22:53:19 +0000 PinkElephant 2813274@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My daughter is on the high ("strong") end of the low tone spectrum. She was an IUGR baby, induced a little before 37 weeks due to lack of growth and born at about 16 inches/4.5 lbs. We had her evaluated for early intervention just before her first birthday because she was only just then beginning pull herself to sit independently. She's currently 17 months old, and has made progress in twice-weekly (now once weekly) PT. She sat pretty quickly, and now is creeping, but not standing without holding something or walking independently. She still doesn't like to crawl properly on hands &amp; knees (she's a very fast commando crawler). While technically her delay is minor, it has seemed like a long, slow process. Her growth in skills comes in spurts and lulls. </p> <p>So far, she's not speech delayed - I was a little concerned because I was comparing her to my extremely verbal middle daughter, and had her evaluated recently, and she does not qualify for therapy. I was told that often low-tone kids' speech will lag until they're sitting/standing/walking both because they lack the diaphragm strength to push out the air to make sounds/words, and also because they aren't experiencing quite as much as kids who are upright/mobile...but DD3 has always been pretty communicative, even though she doesn't always use completely intelligible words. I do notice spurts in her words right after she has spurts in her physical milestones.</p> <p>One thing we had a lot of success with in the beginning was kinesio tape (like you saw athletes using in the Olympics) - she had her abs taped for a few weeks to give her a "reminder" to use her core. that's how we made the jump to pulling to sitting and to crawling. To help get her standing more securely, she wore a belly wrap a few hours a day. Both REALLY helped.</p> <p>@Mrs. Starfish: I'd love to see this, too! I think my daughter's low tone is causing slightly more delay in physical milestones than yours, but I'd still be interested to see how things progressed for her! I feel like I'm kind of in the dark as to when we "graduate"/where does this end.</p> <p>@karen: Thank you for sharing! One thing I'm struggling with is trying to see "when does this end" - ie., when do we stop going to PT (originally the PT thought she'd walk by 18 months, so still in the "normal" range of when they'd ideally like babies to walk, and we'd graduate at that point...but we're approaching 18 months and I'm not at all sure she'll walk), what comes next if we keep going after she walks (will we have to work on jumping? Stair climbing?). I don't have any specific questions (since as you said, each kid is so different), but it's really nice to hear from parents of older children who have been at this a bit longer, in order to imagine what our path might look like. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813137 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 12:31:00 +0000 karen 2813137@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 4 year old son has low muscle tone too. You may already know this, but another name for it is hypotonia (literally low tone). You can find additional resources googling or looking for facebook groups about hypotonia.</p> <p>Whenever I'm trying to explain low muscle tone, I refer people to this article:</p> <p><a href="https://starfishtherapies.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/what-does-low-tone-mean/" rel="nofollow">https://starfishtherapies.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/what-does-low-tone-mean/</a></p> <p>It talks a lot about how hypotonia doesn't necessarily have to do with low strength, but more about how difficult it is to activate muscles (think about the effort it takes us to get off a comfy couch!). No matter how strong children get, this is a condition that they'll be compensating for for a lifetime. </p> <p>Physical and occupational therapy definitely help, but to be honest for my son I think the thing that helped the most was time. He walked at 2.5 and talked around 3.5, and he still has significant delays (granted he does have a diagnosed chromosomal condition). But really, we just had to be patient and keep working with him. One of his early intervention therapists told me that as a rough guideline, it takes kids with low muscle tone twice as long to make the jump to the next milestone. So, while "typical" kids might be crawling at 9 months and walking at 12 months, it might take our kids 6 months+ to move from crawling to walking. It just takes longer to build the core strength, coordination, motor planning, confidence, etc.</p> <p>Also - hypotonia is a broad term that encompasses a REALLY wide range of delays. I'm in a few hypotonia facebook groups, and there are kids who are barely delayed all the way up to kids with trachs and other life-supporting medical equipment. One person's experience with low muscle tone may not tell you too much about what your child's experience is likely to be!</p> <p>Ask away if you have other questions! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813118 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 11:49:51 +0000 sunny 2813118@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Starfish: yes, a post would be helpful! Thanks! Interesting that it has affected your daughters feet. </p> <p>@Mama Bird: great to know that he’s still able to participate in the same activites. </p> <p>@Mrs. Tiger: yes we have been working on stairs with him because he does favor 1 side. He likes to stand on his right leg and kick balls/walk up stairs with his left (eg. Anything that requires 1 legged support he uses his right to support him). </p> <p>I didn’t get specifics on if he’s low tone everywhere but I’ll ask at our next session. I know she also wants us to work on core strength with him so I bought him some of the same suction cup toys that we used in PT. They stick to the window and he pulls them off which requires him to engage his core so he doesn’t topple over. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813104 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 11:05:15 +0000 Mrs. Tiger 2813104@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>D also had this which is why he was initially diagnosed with CP. Does your PT give you exercises to do with him at home?</p> <p>One thing they recommended was to not let him favor a side - force him to use the weaker/lower preference side. Did she specify where she saw the low tone? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813094 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 10:48:16 +0000 Mama Bird 2813094@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My son has low muscle tone! He had PT before he turned one, and a bit of speech therapy later (I think it was affecting his mouth muscles a bit). I gather that it's something that doesn't go away. He's able to do pretty much everything his classmates do, it just takes him more effort to get to the same fitness level. He's probably not going to be the strongest kid in class, and probably won't be good at contact sports, but he does other sports (swimming and gymnastics) and I think they help him build his strength. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813082 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 10:06:44 +0000 Mrs. Starfish 2813082@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, my Audrey has low muscle tone! I wrote a post here about some issues that she has with her feet, which is partially attributable to her low muscle tone: <a href="http://www.hellobee.com/2018/02/06/toddler-foot-overpronation/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hellobee.com/2018/02/06/toddler-foot-overpronation/</a></p> <p>Audrey sees a PT about every three weeks, and she helps us with exercises and activities that are good and helping. Perhaps I can write a post about some of these - would that be helpful? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/anyone-have-a-child-with-low-muscle-tone#post-2813071 Fri, 30 Mar 2018 09:41:05 +0000 sunny 2813071@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 2 year old’s physical therapist mentioned that he had low muscle tone but I didn’t really understand what this meant. I googled it and the descriptions of a floppy baby don’t really apply since he’s much bigger now. The only associated descriptive feature that seems to apply is that my son has been delayed on many gross motor milestones.</p> <p>Does anyone else have a child with low muscle tone or are there any physical therapists here? Is there anything we can do to help him? </p>