Sadie's first stander

Sadie's standing frame came Monday afternoon.  It's a pretty hurking big piece of equipment.  And I needed a therapist to help fit Sadie and show me how it worked... luckily she came Tuesday morning and we were able to get Sadie in it and upright!  She didn't complain, but I'm not sure she loved it either.

This is the Easy Stand Bantam and it's the coolest stander I've seen!  It's easy to get Sadie in it, and when she's tired, we can just sit her down, but continue with whatever activity we were doing.  The goal is to do as much therapy in this as we can throughout the week.


I think she DID like being upright.  She felt like a big girl.  And it was so fun to interact with her standing up (because as you can see, this lifts her about 18 inches off the ground).  Plus it was easier to do her hair without her head up against something, so having to hold her body at the same time.

The goal, to start out with, is 20 minutes a day of standing.  Then we'll work up to 30, and then 45.  We need to be checking for pressure sores, the PT told us, to make sure everything is positioned correctly for her and not rubbing or pushing on her in a way that is going to cause pain.  Hopefully in about 7-10 days she can tolerate 60 minutes a day of standing.  And about a week after that, we'll go for 45 minutes twice a day, so that's she's in it for an hour and a half each day.

This will help those hips by putting weight through her legs.  It will help her to strengthen muscles in her legs that she isn't used to using.  And hopefully it'll help her be more stable through her core, and she'll get better at standing completely upright (not leaning over like she is in this picture).  Right now, because she doesn't have the core strength, she is supporting her upper body on her elbows, which also helps put weight through her arms, which helps develop her shoulders and maintain mobility through her arms.

we start out in sitting position

Then move to standing

This is what her little legs look like all strapped in.

Who knows, maybe in a year, we'll be showing you video of Sadie using a gait trainer (which is like a walker, but more supportive)!!

Here's a little video of how easy this stander is to use!