6 months - 9 months - a 3.5 min read

6 - 7 months :

• Said 'baa' for the first time
• Started playing with his pacifier
• Started sitting for 45-50 seconds when placed in the sitting position

The shivering that occurred when he was in his 5th month repeated itself. This time the episode lasted for 5 minutes. The moment the shivering ended he looked comfortable as if nothing had happened.

Those shivers resembled 'shudder attacks' which are neither common nor uncommon in infants below 1 year. 

A few times he twisted and turned himself as if he was cramping due to dehydration. This was different from those shivers and was same only in the fact that he was still fully conscious and responding.

During this period he had nearly 10 attacks of both types together. Those attacks were only a minute or so in length. It looked as if he had no control over his body when the attack occurred.

7 - 8 months :

The shudder attacks were continuing. When we asked his pediatrician about those attacks he said that they were not seizures and that we needed to consult a neurologist to know more.

Half way through this period the shudder attacks completely stopped and instead , all of a sudden, one day he started to bob his head. The head bobbing went on for a week and stopped abruptly.

It was this period that we started to question our beliefs. Was our baby boy really free of medical issues? He started to show delay in achieving his milestones. The boy who was achieving all the required milestones way ahead of his peers was starting to lag.

I had my own theories for what was wrong with him. I strongly felt that we could almost always tell what problem someone has with their brain by observing what he/she is not able to do and we can correct it to some extent by proper stimulation. Say for example, if someone has a problem with posture and balance and is unable to co ordinate his movements , it is highly likely that his cerebellum is damaged. So, if we try to stimulate his cerebellum, his posture and balance might improve.

I found that Glenn Doman , whose method of teaching I was following for Sai , had worked with a lot of brain-injured children and all his learning methods were a product of the research done with brain-injured children. I contacted the IAHP( http://www.iahp.org/ )and they were polite enough to answer my questions. Finally, they suggested that I read the " What to do about your brain-injured kid" book by Glenn Doman for a complete understanding.

The book was an eye-opener and it cleared most of my doubts. The main reason I liked the book and believed in it is that the theory I had and the idea of the book coincided. For more on my views regarding the book and therapy click here

We bought the ' Fit baby, smart baby, your baby' book, also by Glenn Doman and started giving him the exercises mentioned in the book.  Within 2 weeks of starting the program we were able to see so much changes in him both physically and skill wise. 

Seeing significant improvements after implementing the exercises, we bought the ' How smart is your baby book?' in order to evaluate him as per the developmental profile designed by Glenn Doman. We found that our baby was lacking skills in the motor and manual areas. In other areas he was perfectly on time with his peers. 

8 - 9 months :

All the shudder attacks & head bobbing were gone for good. 

By the end of 9 months,

1. He was still not able to sit without support
2. He was not able to crawl in cross pattern
3. His left hand was not good enough with grasping objects.
4. He was not able to point at objects nor was he able to look at an object that was being pointed at.
5. He didn't take mini push ups.

Even though he met a lot of little milestones , the list of milestones that he did not meet was becoming longer . He had developmental delay. We had to accept the fact that he needed special care and attention.