Helpful tools

Once I had the chance to breathe, I was able to look up various websites that specifically apply to down syndrome.  Two websites are nationally based - the National Down Syndrome Congress (www.ndsccenter.org) and National Down Syndrome Society (www.ndss.org).  These websites were good starting points to just learning about down syndrome but frankly, after surfing through the sites, I was just overwhelmed.  For me, it may have been selfish but I just needed to focus on my son and not statistics.

So that is what I did - I just focused on being a mom to my two kids and meeting their needs as best as I could.  Of course, that did not mean I didn't seek advice or help for my son.  In fact, our physical therapist was very helpful in suggesting tools for him.

One of the tools that our physical therapist recommended and that I would recommend to any parent of a child with down syndrome is Hip Helpers.  These are shorts that are made of the same material that you associate with tight biker shorts, but what is so great about them is that the inseam is sewn up so that the baby's movement is restricted to spreading his legs only hip width apart.  The shorts really helped since my son has low muscle tone (something that is apparently a common for babies with down syndrome).  Check out www.hiphelpers.com.  Even now, when my son's flexibility seems a little too much, I slip the shorts back on him for a couple of hours to help him.

Something else that I just love is Baby Signing Time.  These are dvds where sign language is put to music.  Since my son loves music this has been a great help.  The tunes are catchy and help the entire family learn sign language.  We initially bought this for our daughter but continued using it with our son.  The dvds are sold on Amazon.com as well as on www.babysigningtime.com.  Knowing sign language has been a tremendous help in communicating with our son.  Even as he has started speaking, we still use sign language to aid us.