A New Pram!

Where to begin, when we were first told that we should get a special pram for our daughter Faith, my first thoughts were she doesn't need a special pram, she is going to be able to sit up by herself soon, move around and do want she wants. What I had in my head was a pram that was of hard plastic, screamed 'disability', and caused people to stare, was big, bulky, heavy, ugly and it would not allow her any movement at all and would hinder her development. I thought that this was the physiotherapist's way of saying, your daughter isn't going to move forward so you might as well accept it. I wasn't going to accept that. She was 15months at the time. She is still a baby to me, still tiny, she has oxygen and a NG tube, surely not another technical piece of equipment to make people come up to me and question me more than they already do. I wasn't open to this idea, I wasn't ready, I didn't think we would need this, we were told that she would walk, run, jump and play like any other child, it wasn't meant to be this hard. My dreams seem to be fading and reality is in my face and I need to somehow deal with it. So, I said, ok, what are our options?

New Pram

After talking it through with the physio she explained she wasn't trying to stop her moving around or moving forward in development but help to do those things. She said it does take time to get used to it all. She has always been so good to us. The physiotherapist gave us websites to look up and there were scary looking prams, I wouldn't call them prams anyway, most of them looked uncomfortable and stiff. But we found one, the buggy system that had three 3 wheels and looked like a normal pram but with a little added support. We trialed it for a few days and it was ok but it wasn't soft padding it was quite hard and even though it supported her, she looked uncomfortable but I guessed this was the way it was meant to be. On first application to NSW Health, we received a letter saying our request had been denied due to safety concerns and it had three wheels (that wasn't in the letter but I read about the use of 3 wheel prams in the guidelines and it wasn't something they liked) . It was approved for Australian standards but not for NSW Health, anyway, the physio pointed out another pram and I looked into it a bit more and it looked so much better so we arranged for the company to bring it to our house so we could have a look at it. It was the Stingray R82 (http://www.r82.com/Products/Stingray-Frame-5.aspx), it looked so funky. It came in different colours too. Faith looked so much more comfortable in it and the padding and supports were soft, apart from being machine washable, it was compact compared to other ones and easy to use. It comes with a tray so Faith can play which will be wonderful. We decided this was the one.

The Stingray R82

An new application to NSW Health was put in. Stingray R82 is much more expensive than the buggy system and NSW Health made it so hard for us. In end between the physiotherapist, the company supplying the pram, a wonderful and supportive local politician it was approved. We received a letter saying that it would take up to four months before it was ordered. We thought that was a bit long as we needed it now not in 4 months time. So our local state member made a call and it got ordered, now we just had to wait the 5-6 weeks for its arrival. Very exciting. We could see that this pram is going to be good.

At last in early May it arrived and it just looks like a sporty expensive pram. It has an oxygen holder which is wonderful as it will give us more space to store things. It came with a clear perspex tray and a lovely sun hood for walking. Faith fitted into it with such ease, she took to playing in the pram perfectly. Out came her little hands and grabbed her stacker cups and started poking the play dough. It is also good for food play. I can now push Faith around the house and out on to the deck. She feels more included and can play independently and I can show her what drawing is and so many other fun activities. She is supported in her body and there is a little head rest and tray for her feet to rest comfortably. She looks so big and long in it. It is a bit heavy to go down the stairs but when we are down it allows Faith see what is going on outside and be part of the world. I was so skeptical about this pram idea at the beginning but when I did some research and thought about the benefits to Faith and now how it has already helped her and we have only had it a few weeks. It does take time to adjust to this 'new world' of special needs and what it holds but this pram has brought Faith so much happiness by being more mobile and being able to play with her hands and learn more.