# Tonic muscle tone?



## Wantabean

hey ladies how are you all doing? so i was wondering if any of you know anything about this? i don't really understand what ht means or could mean for future. Cameron had his 6 month check with consultant and he said that cam has tonic muscle tone. i know when he was born he was stiff as a board so to me he seems really flexible. coz Garry and i are carers for adults with disabilities we have automatically assumed the worse. what has bothered me the most is that the cons said he wasn't gonna mention it at the start but felt it was something i had to be aware of and keep an eye on it. i have noticed cam frequently arches his back and pushes his ar
s back with his wrists locked but thought nothing of it. does thos make any sense to anyone? we need to go back im two months so i could really use some help. i would like to have questions to ask but don't know where to start. 
we have however finally nees refered to a dietician about his weight and have been refered about his stoppy breathing thing :) yay 
xxxxxx


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## twins_daddy

It might mean Hypertonic. I don't know much about it and certainly not with prem's but I seem recall it's something to do with lack of tone in muscles - I've had quite a bit of treatment due to sport injuries in the past and I'm sure I heard that!


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## xxClaire_24xx

this was mentioned too at Ellies 6 month check but it was hypetonic muscle tone that was mentioned so not sure if it means the same thing, we are getting it checked again on the 6th of June but Ellie is under supervision for mild cerebal palsy too??


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## vermeil

our son is hypertonic too - I think many preemies have stiff muscles, from laying still in those incubators for so long. Here in Canada all preemies under 29 weeks do physio sessions. We do physio twice a month, with daily exercises and it does help. My little guy kept arching his back too and pushing with his feet, it was the only way he knew to move around. With lots of work he figured out how to turn on his stomach and push with his hands. Not very efficient way of getting about but at least he seems happier heh. The whole point is to discourage them from PUSHING with theirlegs, as they are already stiff, and teach them to FLEX. That includes back muscles, abdomen, legs obviously, ankles etc. There are many simple exercises you can do to encourage that. Oh and no walkers or play saucers of any kind - nothing that baby can use to push off with his feet. Well you get the idea ;)


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## Wantabean

thanks for getting back to me guys :) well i thought it was hypertonia but didnt want to jump to conclussions. the doc kinda stumbled wen i asked him to explain so i think he didnt want to worry me. i have notoiced it more and more now its been pointed out. Cameron wasnt a premie so he gets judged by 'normal' baby standards. i think its stupid though. he was 2 weeks early and really ill so he should get a lil bit of a sway wen it comes to milestones etc. GRRRR i hate docs! lol guess the only thing i can do is wait. waiting is def the worst part of all this! 
Does anyone know exactly what hypertonic means? is it that the muscles conract and stiffen sporadically or is it constant? can it just effect the arms and trunk? so he isnt to push with legs? he is always wanting to stand and walk about and jump. he has doind this since he was about 3 months. so i should discourage this?xxx


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## vermeil

Perhaps I can clarify more, as i've had that same talk with my neonatalogist heh. Hypertonic means, essentially, stiff. In actuality the muscles are stiffer because they're receiving more, steady electrical impulses from the brain - it's like a light that's still a bit visible even after you turn it off, compared to a regular light that goes completely dark. There's still a faint signal telling the muscle to flex even at rest. Doctors are always reluctant to have this conversation with parents because it opens the door to all sorts of speculation - us parents are quite good at imagining the worse and inventing all sorts of conditions ;)

For example my little guy is more hypertonic in the right leg than the left. So his brain is sending more impulses to that leg, even when it's at rest, causing it to flex or extend more (depending on the muscle). Though typically preemies have strong extenders (like pushing with your leg) and weaker flexers (like bending your leg). If you take his two legs and bend them gently against his stomach, you can go farther with his left leg. The right one is stiffer and resists more. Not by much, it's not very apparent but both the physiotherapist and the neonatalogist noticed it. Of course now that i know what to look for I see the difference too. But in his case it's minor. Hence the physio sessions and exercises. Where we - surprise - work on giving his right leg the same flexibility.

As for your own little guy, I'm certainly not an expert so I can't say! Can you have him evaluated by a physiotherapist? It's quite simple, they test their flexibility limb by limb and point out variances. By the way some variance is perfectly normal, i don't think any of us can claim perfect bodies either =p

Hope that helps a bit :hugs:


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## Wantabean

yeah that helps loads thank you. i am gonna wait till we see consultant again and get him to explain everything properly and get a referal if needed. My MIL is a physio but i dnt want to say to her coz she has a tendancy to complete over react and always ends up winding OH up and making him overly stressed so have kept quiet about this. Its really good to be able to stress and rant without everyone going into overdrive :) thanks so much to everyone for replying :) :hugs: xxx


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