Ottobock Kids

Children's Rehab

Children's rehab: greater mobility for children and young people

Children's rehabilitation ensures that children and adolescents with disabilities get the opportunity of active participation. With individual mobility aids adapted to the needs of each child, it maintains the quality of care and facilitates everyday life.

Customized solutions and comprehensive advice by our experts return some freedom and independence to children and adolescents.

Kinderreha

Ottobock Kids

Since 1919, Ottobock has been committed to helping people around the world achieve more mobility and independence. Unfortunately, providing the best possible assistive devices to children and young people with disabilities has not yet become standard practice in our society. One reason for this is the complexity of the supply of required devices such as children's wheelchairs, walkers, and orthoses.

To get the best possible outcomes, it is important that all people involved collaborate closely from the beginning. The provision of suitable devices starts with product development and includes, both medical and therapy professionals as well as doctors, nurses, and technicians. Other partners such as nurseries and schools, parents, and the wider family also play a vital role in the development of a child.

As children are constantly developing and still growing, any device they are prescribed should be adjustable to grow with them and be individually adaptable and versatile, this helps children to fulfil their dreams and have freedom and independence.

In the beginning.

At first it may be difficult to understand the challenges that lay ahead in your child’s future. It’s not uncommon for families to feel overwhelmed, with doctor's visits, hospital stays and therapists, but with support and guidance from numerous experts in different fields it will become clear how you can live an active and fulfilling everyday life.

Diagnoses

The right diagnosis.

The path to the right diagnosis can sometimes be long and not always easy. Some conditions and disorders are difficult to diagnose because, they may not be apparent until after birth, or do not show until your child starts developing. Below various conditions are listed that may lead to a disability in children. This will give you an overview of the different disease characteristics as well as of the causes and the solutions that are available for your child.

Cerebral palsy (CP) refers to movement disorders that occur as a result of brain damage in early childhood. The condition is the most common cause of disability in childhood, and the symptoms of CP vary greatly from child to child.

Cerebral palsy is caused by damage to the brain before, during or shortly after birth. Since the undeveloped brain is affected, there are often no clear signs of CP at birth. Symptoms usually present over the course of your child's first few months. Initial symptoms can include reduced muscle strength. Later on, further symptoms may be:

Basic tension in the muscles (muscle tone) too low or too high–often resulting in spasticity
One-sided posture
Reduced hand-hand and hand-mouth contact
Delays in turning to the prone and supine position, in sitting as well as in crawling
Restricted use of the hand and arm

A clear diagnosis is often only made during the course or after the 1st year of your child's life.

Once you receive a diagnosis, it is important to develop a medical care strategy as quickly as possible. This will be based on the severity of the disease and, be adapted to your child’s individual needs. All children with CP have varying levels of impairment in their gross motor skills (e.g. sitting and walking) and manual skills (e.g. grasping).

The symptoms of cerebral palsy are very individual, so treatment or medical care must also focus on the individual child. Although CP becomes apparent in early childhood, it is not a "childhood disease", this is because it causes delays in sensorimotor development, which can have knock on consequences in terms of the physical and cognitive abilities of your child and continue to adulthood. This poses new challenges for medical professionals and caregivers because patients have different needs at each stage of life. These needs are very diverse, so there is no "typical" pattern covering all patients.

Infantile Zerebralparece

On average, brittle bone disease affects 1 in about 20,000 births. Osteogenesis imperfecta is a rare genetic disorder of bone metabolism that causes bone instability. In those affected, the body is unable to produce a certain collagen or can only produce it in poor quality. Without collagen, elasticity and stability in the bone mass is insufficient. Walking and standing are impossible for most of the patients. They are permanently dependent on protective mobility aids, e.g. wheelchairs for children and rehab strollers.

Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a group of inherited genetic conditions that lead to defects or deficiencies in proteins found in the muscles. There are many kinds of muscular dystrophy, and symptoms of the most common kind begin in childhood or adolescence and gradually cause muscles to weaken leading to an increasing level of disability. MD is a progressive condition and usually starts affecting a particular group of muscles before affecting muscles throughout the body. Some types of MD affect the heart or muscles used for breathing.

Similar to cerebral palsy, children with muscular dystrophy need early and individually adapted care. It is important to relive symptoms while at the same time maintaining and promoting mobility and independence. Devices such as orthotics, wheelchairs, walkers and rehabilitation buggies are essential.

Spina bifida is a rare congenital malformation where the child's spine does not develop correctly in the womb, causing a gap in the spine.

There are several forms of spina bifida including, myelomeningocele or open spina bifida, in this form the spinal cord remains open allowing the spinal cord to push out and form a visible bulge in the child's back. In meningocele spina bifida the protective membranes around the spinal cord push out around the spine, however the spinal cord develops normally so surgery can be used to remove the membranes without damaging the nerves. The final form is spina bifida occulta or closed spina bifida. This is usually discovered by chance and asymptomatic at in most cases. In this form, one or more vertebrae do not form properly, but the gap is very small and usually doesn't cause any problems.

To enable standing and walking, physiotherapy, neuromobility and rehabilitation devices as well as surgery are important parts in the treatment of spina bifida. Not only do they ensure that children with spina bifida are able to move better, they also increase their life expectancy and improve their quality of life.

Spina Bifida

Down syndrome is a genetic anomaly, instead of the usual 23 pairs of chromosomes that occur in all human cells, the cells of people with Down syndrome have an additional copy of chromosome 21. This change is not the result of anything done before or during pregnancy.

Worldwide, more than five million people are living with Down syndrome, although not everyone has the same characteristics, children and adults with Down syndrome often have a short stature and distinct facial features. Delayed intellectual and physical development occurs often, although the resulting disabilities vary in severity.

If physical disabilities are present, these children and adults often depend on assistive devices to help them become more mobile and independent.

Solutions for Kids

Ottobock can help to support & motivate children.

Children's Prostheses

The fitting of prostheses for children is always a major challenge for medical technology, because kids have special requirements in terms of functionality, flexibility and mobility. It is therefore important to offer a system that meets the individual needs of different age groups. At the same time, it should purposefully prepare the children for a later fitting with the adult system.

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Children's Prostheses

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Ottobock Skippi children's electric wheelchair

Kinderrollstühle

Kinderrollstühle gibt es erst seit kurzer Zeit. Davor kamen kleingebaute Erwachsenen-Rollstühle zum Einsatz. Dies hat sich zum Glück mittlerweile weitestgehend geändert. Heute gibt es eine Auswahl aus einer Vielzahl an Kinderrollstuhlanbietern.
Je nach körperlicher Einschränkung ist eine Rollstuhlversorgung bereits im Kleinkindalter sinnvoll. Wenn Muskelkraft oder Feinmotorik in den Händen nicht für die Verwendung eines manuellen Rollstuhls ausreichen, empfiehlt sich ein Elektrorollstuhl für Kinder. Welcher Rollstuhl für Ihr Kind der richtige ist, lässt sich nicht pauschal sagen. Grundsätzlich gilt: Die Rollstuhlauswahl sollte gemeinsam mit erfahrenen Versorgern getroffen werden und auf die individuellen Bedürfnisse sowie Tagesabläufe abgestimmt sein.

Ottobock wheelchairs

Orthoses for Children

Orthoses are designed to relieve, stabilise or correct the position of joints, muscles, or bones, while aiding their form and function. Orthoses can be used after an accident as well as to help treat a condition or disease. Since children are constantly growing, their orthoses will need to be regularly checked and updated. The fact that children are still growing offers enormous advantages, it means orthoses can often achieve great therapeutic success in children and adolescents.

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Ottobock children's rehabilitation buggy Kimba

Rehakinderwagen

Für die Beförderung von Kindern mit Mobilitätseinschränkungen dienen spezielle Rehawagen oder Rehabuggys. Sie haben einen besonderen Sitz oder eine Sitzschale und lassen sich in der Regel individuell an die Bedürfnisse der Kinder anpassen. Das Angebot an Reha Kinderwagen ist unübersichtlich und oftmals sind Eltern ratlos. Die Ansprüche an das Produkt sind besonders hoch und vielseitig. Der Wagen oder Buggy begleitet das Kind schließlich eine lange Zeit. Daher ist ein ansprechendes Design genauso wichtig wie die Funktionalität. Ein richtig ausgewählter Reha-Buggy gibt dem Kind den nötigen Halt und sorgt somit für gesteigerten Komfort sowie Mobilität. Er kann einen positiven Einfluss auf die gesundheitliche Entwicklung haben. Deshalb sollten Eltern sich bei der Auswahl Zeit lassen, sich gut beraten lassen und auch offen sein.

Ottobock rehab buggies

Child with Ottobock Exopulse Mollii Suit

Neuromodulation

Neuromodulation ist eine Technologie, mit der direkt auf die Nerven eingewirkt wird, um eine natürliche biologische Reaktion hervorzurufen. Elektrische Reize stimulieren gezielt ausgewählte Gebiete, um Nervenaktivitäten zu ändern bzw. zu modulieren. Dies führt beispielsweise zur Entspannung angespannter (spastischer) Muskeln, zur Aktivierung schwacher Muskeln und zur Minderung von damit verbundenen Schmerzen. Diese Art von Stimulation ist nicht medikamentös und hat daher wenig Nebenwirkungen.

Ottobock Exopulse Mollii Suit

Ottobock Kidwalk walking aid for children

Walker

Walker, Gehtrainer, Gehstöcke oder auch ein Rollator für Kinder gewährleisten selbstständiges Laufen und erweitern den Aktionsradius. Laufen ist wichtig für die körperliche Entwicklung. Muskulatur, Bewegungskoordination, Gleichgewichtssinn und räumliches Bewusstsein werden trainiert. Außerdem wird das Selbstbewusstsein gesteigert, da eine Kommunikation auf Augenhöhe mit anderen Menschen stattfindet.

Nurmi Neo