10 month old

Hi all -

I'm new to the group. My son, Henry, was diagnosed with ITP at 6 months of age. He is now 10 months old. We've had our ups and downs at Children's Hospital where his counts have been as low as 3,000 and highest is 85,000 (1 week post IVIg). He usually averages about 20,000. He's had a total of 8 IVIg treatments so far. It has been a roller coaster ride as I'm sure all of you are and have been experiencing. We've been trying to take it day by day.

My biggest concern is how mobile he is becoming. He is a little later with crawling/cruising/etc though it looks like the time to really start crawling is drawing near. How do you all deal with it - helmets/padding/etc? It has been suggested to me that helmets might also make balancing harder therefore learning to walk is harder with it on and may cause more injury than not. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that could help me with my little guy.

I suggest you try to child proof your place as much as possible from bumps especially to the head area. Supervise at all times his movements since a baby cannot say if he hit his head or not. And i guess thats the first thing you have to look out for. I guess a helmet would help but probably not for 24/7.

My son was diagnosed at 1 year, although we now think he'd had it for months by then, and he is now 4 years old. When he was little, we spent a lot lot lot of time and energy on babyproofing everything. Anywhere we could perceive a fall, bumpers were put on. Furniture that could be bumped into was stored and baby gates stayed on for a very long time to control our ability to watch him and keep him in a safe environment. We chose playgrounds that weren't busy and chose to take long walks over other types of play. I bought a helmet but mostly for my peace of mind, it never got used. While we pillow padded his world, we also worked hard to encourage anything that improved his core body strength in the hopes he would become a more stable walker sooner. All of it made a reduction in our stress but by no means eliminated it. It was a hard first year but hopefully you'll be a classic acute case and this will end before a year. We are 3 years past our initial diagnosis and still dealing with this condition but it gets easier, trust me. So although ITP is still around the bumpers and baby gates are gone now

Athos - Thanks for the suggestions.

Uhma - Thank you for sharing about your son and your experience. Your post made me feel better and I am trying to be hopeful that things will get a bit easier over time. I am always putting pillows everywhere around Henry which I am sure is likely hindering his movement though making me feel better. With a 4 year old brother running around, he needs as much protection as I can give him. Do you have a suggestion/source for bumpers? I would appreciate it.

I used the website onestepahead.com a lot, it has an extensive safety inventory. At times even comical, which is a nice giggle for an ITP parent. For bumpers we would get the mantle/fireplace bumpers and use them on everything. Target was often a good resource for those if onestepahead.com doesn't have anything. We also put his mattress on the floor once he was out of his crib. We were able to make blanket and pillow bumpers should he roll out. It helped to have the normal step all kids get while reassuring ourselves he would be safe.

I used the website onestepahead.com a lot, it has an extensive safety inventory. At times even comical, which is a nice giggle for an ITP parent. For bumpers we would get the mantle/fireplace bumpers and use them on everything. Target was often a good resource for those if onestepahead.com doesn't have anything. We also put his mattress on the floor once he was out of his crib. We were able to make blanket and pillow bumpers should he roll out. It helped to have the normal step all kids get while reassuring ourselves he would be safe.

Thanks, Uhma - a lot of great stuff at onestepahead. I didn't realize there were so many safety options for just about everything.

For those who have young ones, I found some great cushioned play mats at Costco (US). They are super soft and really provides a protective barrier for babies/toddlers. I also found a product called Wonder Bumpers (Amazon) that is a great alternative to traditional crib bumpers - they are padded and cover each railing. I am worrying less about my little guy thrashing about in his crib.

Wishing bountiful platelets to all...