Like the other reviewers, I am also giving it a 5 starts. I really appreciate what Pam has done for my son. Without her advices, I think I am still in a depression mode now. I wish I could have found her earlier so that my baby didn't have to go thru so much.
EXPERIENCE WITH BLOOMING STEPS
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When my son was 13 months, he still couldn't pull himself up, he couldn't even sit up from laying down position without my assistance, not to mention about clawing. When he sat at one spot and see his favorite toy away from him, he had no motivation to get it. He would just look at it or called me to get it for him. I was getting more and more concerned with his development. People around me continued to tell my that he will be okay, I just worried too much. However, my instinct was telling me that something was not right, I know boys develops slower than girls, but he was REALLY slow. The pediatrician told me that he may have the condition called hypotonia -- low muscle tone. He referred me to see a PT that is affiliated with Holy Cross Hospital, but turned out I didn't go there because that place was sooooo pushy, they care about money more than anything else. Since I have PPO insurance, I decided to look for another one on my own.
So, I started researching the pediatric physical therapists in the Valley. To my surprise, there are tons of physical therapists out there, but I could hardly find a PEDIATRIC PT. Thru Yelp, I found Blooming Steps with good reviews. I guess I had no other choices -- I was very desperate looking for help.
I called Blooming Steps, Pam picked up the phone. Over the phone, I told her about my son's situation, she was so nice spend time listening to me. She advised me to take him to her office for a consultation. The other excellent part of it was that she is in-network PPO with Blue Cross Blue Shield. It worked out just perfect.
Basically, Pam is the only person running the business. The office is very clean. She is so nice and she knows how to play with kids, although she is tough. From the one-hour consultation, Pam already pointed out my baby's weaknesses. She confirmed that my son has the condition, hypotonia. His motoring skill was equivalent to a 7-month baby. I was like... oh no!!! But she said that it is not related to mental illness or nervous system. He just needed to do exercises to tone up the muscle. I was quite skeptical about how exercises can be done on babies, but I had to trust her professionalism as I had no other choices. She wanted us to take him there 3 times a week because he was so behind. Both my husband and I are working parents, but Pam would work around with our schedule. It's a BIG HELP!
At each session, Pam would tell us what exercises my baby needed to work on. The good thing is that my son goes to pre-school and the teachers there are willing to help out. I have the teachers following Pam's instruction to force him to do the necessary exercises. After a week, my LO already learned how to sit up by himself. The other good thing about Pam is that she is not the type of provider keep making you to go so that she can bill the insurance. She doesn't waste your time. After only a week that she saw my LO improving, she told us that we could drop down to 2 times a week.
Of course, there was a lot of crying throughout the process. After 3 sessions, I almost wanted to give up because it was so torturing to see him crying for the whole session, and didn't see much improvement. She said that it would take about 4-6 weeks to see some big changes. While I was so frustrated and debating whether I should continue to go, My LO started to crawl after 4 weeks of PT, and cried less and less. She was right, I saw the big change in 4 weeks. Following Pam's advices and teachers' pushing, my LO improved so much that I couldn't even believe. After another 4 weeks (2 months with PT in total), Pam started to push him to walk from crawling, and she reduced his PT session to once a week. Now he is 15 1/2 months, he started to walk by himself a few days ago. We've been there for only 2.5 months so far, I really see the miracle. I really appreciate what Pam has done for us. To a lot of parents, it may not be a big deal, but to me, it means a lot. read more