Pediatric Physical Therapy for Infants and Children

What is pediatric physical therapy?

We would define pediatric physiotherapy as a specialized training that allows therapeutic interventions that are very different from the rest of physiotherapy specializations, and that is mainly aimed at children and babies.

Most of the population understands and agrees that a child requires pediatric physical therapy when he has problems developing his role as a child due to any problem that prevents him from carrying out activities of daily living without pain. What people do not know is that respiratory physiotherapy in this population is very useful in addition to pharmacological treatment, since it significantly reduces the time of improvement.

So what is pediatric respiratory physiotherapy in children and infants?

Babies have lower lung capacity. In addition, they hardly know how to cough, so coughing is not able to mobilize mucus effectively to remove it. To this is added the handicap that the airways in these little ones are narrower and they become easily inflamed. It is in this context that the figure of the physiotherapist becomes important, since by performing different maneuvers we manage to lengthen the air expulsion phase and gain more lung capacity. The sum of the two manages to mobilize mucus and thus improve the symptoms and the condition of the baby / child.

Which has benefits?

Apart from those already mentioned, such as the improvement of symptoms and lung capacity, this type of intervention attempts to reduce the amount of medication given to the baby. Be careful, we do not say that you do not have to medicate it, We say that we try to complement the treatment and on some occasions the results are so remarkable that the pharmacological treatment is reduced.

How do you do it? It is dangerous?

During the treatment, the child's parents will be in front at all times, since contact between the two is very important for both the baby and the parents. Trust is essential. It is not dangerous and during the session you will see how the hands are placed on the thorax and through different compressions and mobilizations of the same, the breaths are controlled, looking for the desired ones. "The baby or child will cry and get tired, but don't worry, it's normal and nothing happens."

Have you started to remove mucus when you get home, is something wrong?

Absolutely nothing happens, it is normal. It is not a treatment that involves removing mucus in consultation and as soon as you leave the center no more is removed. On the contrary, the effects last throughout the day and it is normal that while at home you expectorate more than usual.

Can we do it as parents?

Faced with this question, it is important to say that the physiotherapist is the one who assesses the patient's condition and who decides whether, in the phase in which we find ourselves, exercises can be taught to parents so that they can do them with the baby at home. In certain phases we teach parents to perform certain techniques. We practice and solve doubts in consultation and if they are not sure, nothing happens and we leave them for the consultation.

How many sessions are necessary?

It will depend on the pathology and the moment in which we approach it, since a chronic disease such as he is not the same as a bronchiolitis in an initial phase in which in one session the results are dazzling and in a few sessions we solve the most important symptoms.

• • respiratory physiotherapy in children is very useful in addition to pharmacological treatment, since it significantly reduces the improvement time.
  • By performing different maneuvers, we are able to lengthen the air expulsion phase and gain more lung capacity. The sum of the two manages to mobilize mucus and thus improve the symptoms and the condition of the baby / child.
  • The number of sessions will depend on the pathology and the moment in which we approach it, since a chronic disease such as asthma is not the same as a bronchiolitis in an initial phase.

Carlos Master Lara Degree in Physiotherapy, mention in Manual Therapy, Master in Translational Research