Affected Arm!! CIMT

I have titled this post so that other parents can easily have reference.

At the time of writing this Hunter is 14 months old and i decided to start this blog. Because i noticed him last week put an object in his mouth to instead of his effected hand to bring to me.

I had thought at the time that his OT skills were up to date & he was doing well . He would bring his arm up when he tried to stand, weight bear when crawling and open his hand to an object when his left would bring it over. When i saw him use his mouth i immediately knew this was wrong!
I jumped on blog sites of children with the same diagnosis to Hunter that i follow (these are from the US) to see where their children were at at Hunter's age... I was astounded.. they were all using their hand more than Hunter. But the one thing that stood out was that they had all undergone CIMT (Constraint Induced Movement Therapy).
I have research this therapy as much as anyone!

CIMT Information.

Most children who begin this therapy are between 12 - 16 months old as a the critical period in the brain for learning to use there hands/arm(fine motor skills) in certain ways is active.

The treatment involves the unaffected arm be put in a plaster cast for a period of 4 weeks, could be longer or shorter but this is the average.

During this time intensive treatment is undergone.

The outcome of CIMT is that whilst the unaffected arm is in cast the effected arm has no choice but to perform.

The studies are proven that the effected arm can increase use by up to 30 %,

I have spoken to Hunter's OT at the Spastic centre which is one of the centres in Australia that do actively conduct studies & She did give me a Mitt for Hunter to wear over is unaffected hand... but i was just given it, no program, no nothing, i had no idea at the time what to do with it, when put it on Hunters had he screamed and wanted it off.
She is the only OT he is seeing..because i was told that he was doing great & i was doing every thing i needed to & our sessions should now go to 3-4 weeks instead of fortnightly or even weekly , which was what we were doing a few months ago.
I started to research CIMT in Australia as much as i could and discovered that it is still in a trial stage.. trust me, i contacted about 23 OT's in Sydney, and Melbourne also contacted people from university trials, West mead children's Hospital and Sydney children's hospital at Randwick.

I got allot if info back from the people i talked to & all of it came back that, Australia believes that CIMT is a breakthrough & may work but without enough trials & funding it cannot be implemented, also that they are cautious as they are moving towards bilateral therapy(using 2 hands, so that the brain map of the uneffected side can help create a map for the effected one) i too think this is a great therapy, but with out any uses how can you start?

So at this time we are on the cusp of therapies that defiantly will help children with hemiplegia ... but not right now!... well this doesn't help Hunter!!!
I'm so angry!, i cant believe we are this behind! we know it works & its not used, the amount of OT's i spoke to regarding CIMT who said " i don't know what your talking about" "never heard of it" disgusts me, these people have an obligation to their profession to stay up to date!
So i continued my research & it led to where i started.. America.
It seems to be common practice for children with hemipleiga. Hence that other kids i have seen doing so well at Hunter's age.
So right now i am trying to contact a lady at West mead children's hospital who is conducting research to try and get Hunter in one.
The other thing is Luke has family in Atlanta Georgia, so we decided that if we pursue every avenue in Australia and it come back that the CIMT cant be done for Hunter here... We are going to America to get it!.
Big call i know .. but this is our son & as parents i believe its our job to see that they are given everything in life that they need..I could never sit here and watch him go through life with an inability knowing that i could have helped him more, we will put our lives on hold, borrow money, & do what ever it takes. I think every parent out there would do the same.
Not sure right now weather we will go, hopefully something will come up in Australia.. I keep posted!!