United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hi...my husband only has the use of one of his arms. We are expecting our third child, but this will be the first time he cares for a newborn after his accident. Does anyone have any pointers on how to care for a baby with one arm?

Interesting this question we never had kids, but I held babies Maid me nerves He mite surprised you because of practice with the other two, maybe. The favorite line in adapting , really is called TO be Determine??
I was better when the kids were learning to walk , I could always offer a helping hand.
Im sure he will figure out how he can help one handed .
There are many here who have post on this topic,
There are something others learn to adapt ware I could not figure how to, my mouth Drops sometimes
Hope this helps??
Tom

"Xiggers"
You are welcome to go onto the Forum of us "Adults with OBPI " , There we have several posts on how we handle our children when we only have 1 "good" arm/hand. I'll try to bump the topic thread up for you there.

BTW everyone is welcome on any of the Forum Message Boards.

Carolyn J
LOBPI/75 --raised 1 son & he's taking care of me now !

AimeeMorera wrote:Hi...my husband only has the use of one of his arms. We are expecting our third child, but this will be the first time he cares for a newborn after his accident. Does anyone have any pointers on how to care for a baby with one arm?

Hi,

I have had my injury for 27 years and mine is a complete avulsed all five nerves, so I basically do life with one arm. As far as kids, mine are now 8 & 6, they are 21 months apart. As far as pointers or how to, best thing I can say is not to worry about it, get in there and like the Nike slogan says, "just do it!"

In case you might wonder how much I did, my wife went on women's three day weekend retreat when my youngest was just a month old. I took care of them by myself and they both survived! and yes diapers got changed:)

I don't have a specific pointer that comes to mind, other than tell him to be confident that he can care for his new child and to find what works for him. Also for you, let him know you trust him and are confident that he can do it, you have to let him figure it out, even if it looks scary or you are concerned the little one might get dropped. I am confident he won't.

Dan

There is the B plan, All ways
There is all ways a B plan to Adapt, to Modify and to help at Camp 2014, I am sure you run Clinic to adapt one hand , there ways to do this? Oh, I could not really answer this but help is here.
If I only had 2 chairs and a table ,2014, I would try to show how to adapt by modification, What bugs you could be given to some that can try to show what they do , modifying is the challenge, There is so many post here on this topic , but modifying needs to be done in person.
There is more than hope in our posts , it more about trying to give and share direction from OUR, experience from birth or latter in life injuries, Both suck!!! I really think there is a vast amount of difference in limitation , so modifying is a on going experience . The equalizer to me is not when you were injury happen, it more about adapting to what you can, we can be this vehicle by what we learn in life to adapt in one hand, I think thats everyone here???? we can share to find away to modify what work for us???
We post and hope to help
Tom

i never had any kids. but at 49 years old, i was injured about 2 weeks before my great nephew was born. when he was 7 months old, he messed his diaper. i told his mama he needed changed. she told me you found it you change it. so i picked him up with my good arm, put him in the crib, and changed his messy diaper. BY MYSELF. WITH ONE ARM. it was not hard to do at all especially for someone who has never had kids. i think he can do it.

I have 3 children ( all adults now) and now a second grand child. There are limits to what I do but nothing is impossible. I can change a diaper. I do not lift a child unless I can support the child's head ( newborn) too.