January 18, 2010

Flaunt what you got!

OK so here is another little piece of advice I have for new parents of a baby with an arm amputation. PLEASE ROLL UP YOUR BABY'S SLEEVES. Don't let long sleeves cover your baby's arm. It is my pet peeve when I see that. What's under there? SHOW IT OFF! Please don't try to cover it up with clothes or blankets when you go out in public. For babies, their sense of touch is everything. They are exploring and learning so much through what they feel. If their limb is covered up they are only getting to feel with half of what they could be. And if your sleeves were too long you wouldn't let them hang over your hand right? They would get in the way.

Gavin is a LBE (left below elbow) amputee. With long sleeve shirts its easy enough to just roll up the left sleeve twice and its the perfect length for his arm. (He does not like to have it covered up and will get ticked if you don't roll up his sleeve immediately!)

Some parents get their children's clothes or jackets altered by having the arms shortened and sewn up professionally. It looks really nice but can get expensive unless you're handy with a sewing machine. We didn't want to do that because we want to save his clothes for future kids. But if you do decide to get your child's clothes altered you can always pass them on to a younger child with the same limb difference.

Gavin HATES to wear his prosthetic arm (which I will write more about later!) and we think a big reason for that is that he doesn't like having the end of his arm covered up. He loses his sense of touch and he uses that arm for everything so when its covered, its harder to do things the way he's used to doing them.

So my point to this post is FLAUNT WHAT THEY GOT and BE PROUD of your BEAUTIFUL child!

3 comments:

  1. I loved that from the beginning, you've had his sleeve rolled up in pics. It means for those of us who know him through pics only, it's never been a hidden thing, just Gavin's little arm :)

    The pic is great too. His pose is so grown up!

    anna-disgrace from LJ

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  2. OMG Gav! What a ham! Seriously! Look at his posing! lol

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  3. i agree! we've rolled gabby's sleeves since she was born and have wondered about other parents when they don't. we also made sure that her baby announcement showed off her short arm.
    and now, same as gav, gabby pushes up her sleeve herself if it comes down. she often says, "gabby do it!"
    gabby is doing well with her prosthesis. i think she would wear it more if her mother would just put it on her. :)

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