strollers and difficult child's

[ready2run]

i need to update my signature. he isn't on the ritalin anymore because it wasn't really helping that much and it caused him to have an arrythmic heartbeat. he is now just on 1mg risperidone and hopefully he will be on 2 mg next week.

 

[Marguerite]

On the subject of going for walks without the stroller - difficult child 3 was hyperlexic. That meant he had an obsession with numbers and letters. I can't walk far (doing better these days) and so our walks were short. But I would encourage him to run ahead to the next letterbox and read the number before I got there. We might only walk five houses away then walk back (on the other side of the road - different numbers!) but it got him used to being out with me as well as having to stay nearby. I'm thinking, very short walks - five minute or so - without the stroller will give him time to exercise those legs in short bursts. He needs to have this time slowly built up - he seriously could have very sore legs for all sorts of reasons, including lack of activity. Stamina uses different types of muscle to short bursts of energy. Sprinters have fast muscle; marathon runners have slow muscle. Slow muscle is redder in colour, contains more myoglobin. You build it with practice and with protein in the diet. Muscle can learn and change - a lab upstairs from where I worked was transplanting slow and fast muscle (in rats) to see how long it took to change from one to the other, based on usage in that part of the body. They could prevent the slow muscle developing by limiting activity in that area.

Marg