United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

This summer Morgan played T-ball, I found it to be a wonderful experience, along side all the other parents I cheered & felt so proud to see my little girl out there. Morgan has a difficult time sometimes but always manages to to fight discouragement & suceeds. I tuly believe confidence is a key player in her athletic accomplishments. She is now Seven & has danced since she was 2, & played soccer last year along with the T-Ball. I understand all of our children have different levels of this injury, although I must urge each & everyone of you to never decide for your child that their arm will not allow them to do something, when you give them that chance, they might just surprize you. I beleive getting them involved in activity young sets the pace for them to go through life confident anf self assured. Its OK that they may not be the best player on the team, but please encourage them to try to see before they or you decide they can't. My heart breaks every time I enter this sight, It breaks realizing all the children that have entered this world injured due to lack of knowledge, carelessness & heart. I hope someday measures are taken to help prevent this, but for now all we can do is be the rock our children need us to be...Remember our children can only be as strong as we are, lets love them & watch after them but lets not enable them. Good luck to eveyone & my prayers will be with you. I would appreicate any imput as to kind of activities your children are involved in!

LOL, if things keep going the way there are now with Ben, he'll probably be a boxer or a wrestler. I will encourage him the same way I've been encouraging his older bro. with sports, try em all out and when you find something you like, then stick with it! Hopefully, he'll be a little better at sports than big bro. who seems to have inhiereted my lack of ability at them.
Anne

maia did gymnastics this last year....she only accomplished 1/10 of what the other kids did in her class but SO WHAT! she had a BLAST!!! and she tried really hard and accomplished so much even if it was at a different level. But the most important thing was that she had fun. This year we are going to try ballet and tap... at camp she is learning ballet and is so excited to show off her first and second positions and plee-yay (how do you spell that word?) LOL

the kids just gotta have fun
life's too serious otherwise

-francine

it must be "plié" Francine !!! LOL LOL LOL

I always believed in encouraging any and all interests, but draw the line when my injured child wanted to take up boxing! He's very active and is involved in lots of sports,etc., but "boxing"? I never thought I would limit him because of his injury, but there did come a time. I had to tell him "no", and I cannot even begin to express how that felt.

I've enabled him so much that he did feel all things possible, but there are certain things that are just plain dangerous and unattainable.

Just another chapter in our lives, and some things I have to accept.

PS He's built like Geoge Foreman, lol

I just bought Kyle a T-ball glove last night. I want to start practicing with him now so he will be ready next year to play. We are a VERY sports oriented family and Kyle is so active and full of energy, so we want to get him into something. However there is one sad note about sports and this injury. My two older sons (17 & 18) have wrestled since they were 6 years old. Kyle has grown up around the whole wrestling scene since he was born. He is their high school teams mascot. He loves to get out on the mat and roll around with all the boys. He talks about wrestling all the time, but I have been told that wrestling is definitely out for him to do. Knowing all the ins and outs of wrestling I can 100% agree. It is a sport that can put a great deal of strain on the shoulder area. But knowing that someday soon I am going to have to tell Kyle he cannot do this sport because of his arm is going to break my heart. I know that there are many other sports to try, (my other sons have done them all) but it is not fair that he will not be able to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers, especially since he really wants too. I just hope that he will find his niche in some other sport that he really likes.
Karrie

Thanks for sharing that with me. I too, was heart broken when I had to tell him that I could not allow that type of activity. It was a first. He not only wants to box, but wants to partake in the martial arts.

Gymnastics in school this year was something that he himself bowed out of. He would choose which activity in gymnastics he would particpate in, and exclude others. The people who came to the school to teach gymnastics critized him harshly for this,and told him he shouldn't bother with any of it! He didn't tell me this right away, and it was too late to deal with the insensitives.

On the up side, I have finally found someone to teach him to swim!!! She is a qualified instructor who has taught a boy without any arms to swim. Isn't that incredible, and she's volunteering to do this!

For every negative there is a positive. It's just hard to remember that sometime. A wise man told me, "if all we have is sunshine, our lives would soon become a desert, we also need the rain and the dark days".

Well my son Joshua tried gymnastics last year @ the local elementary school and loved it. The high school gymnastics coach teaches it and it was great. Sure there were some thing he had to "compensated" on, but all in all it was a nice experience. This spring we tried baseball. I decided I was not gonna mention his injury to the coach and just "see" how things went. Josh is just 5, so baseball was simple and fun. The first 2 or 3 practices went OK. Then during one of the practices the coach told my son he needed to "get that glove over more" (which he has a left injury and supinating is almost none). From that point on my son acted out and cried at the games and practices. We ended up dropping out. I'm not sure if it was because of his age or because of what the coach said. I just wanted to be like all the other parents and not have to go through this whole speach, but it might have made the difference in this case. My son had done swimming lessons at age 4 and enjoyed it. He asked if he could try gymnastics again. I was thinking of trying basketball, but not sure yet. I dont ever want to discourage him.

We have mulled over giving coaches the "speech", and last year in soccer, we didn't. Our son was critized for his "throw-ins",(couldn't raise his arms high enough). Well, he too quit soccer.

I wouldn't ever discourage my son in sports, but depending on the extent and degree of injury (of course different for every child), some things are just not a good idea, or are very difficult to achieve. My doctor told me never to allow gymnastics as an activity for my son. Even hanging off the monkey bars could further injure his shoulde. As they grow older, more is expected of them with all activities and sports, and I have to admit, there are some things that are not possible, like with "all" children. When they are 5, it is still very basic, and simple. My son is very good as baseball, and just wallops the ball! He catches with his uninjured hand.

These are my pearls of wisdom as a mom of a very sports oriented, physical, injured boy, lol. I'm counting the days when he learns to swim, and as always will be cheering him on!

I think every opportunity should be given for BPI children to figure out their own limitations when attempting any sport. Soccer is a great game for everyone and throw-ins shouldn't be a big deal. Many youth players have problems making the throw-in correctly. I hope your son will reconsider and talk to his coach about it. At the very least another player can be assigned to take throw-ins. Your son shouldn't be prevented from playing because of throw-ins.

John P.