I could tell by his face he was a little shocked.

The chair has arrived. The OT came with it last week and oh. My. God. It's bloody bright orange.


Both Zack and Dan hated it. Zack hated it as soon as he was sat in the chair and Dan hated it on sight.


I on the other hand remained hopeful that both of them would get used to it. I was right. Zack now doesn't mind the chair and Dan, well, Dan's kind of getting used to it.


It's called a Sunbeam chair, Sunbeam....more like bloody fluorescent orange beam. Here is a link to the website that supplies the chairs so you can see what I mean.


http://www.jcmseating.co.uk/pages/sunbeam.html



The idea of the chair is to provide Zack with the right support for his body. This way we he can sit in a chair that keeps him comfortable and doesn't make him work too hard to try and keep himself in an upright position. By doing this he can then be encouraged to use his hands more as he won't be concentrating on trying to right himself all the time. The other benefit is that it keeps him symmetrical so that as he grows we can try and avoid him getting curvature in his spine and keep him straight.


Dan's first meeting with the chair happened when the OT was still at our house setting it up. I could tell by his face he was a little shocked. He asked if Zack needed all that padding and she very nicely explained the reasoning behind the chair. Dan didn't look too convinced. But she did say to us that the Pant's is still very young and developing so he might not need as much as he gets bigger. Zack by this time was in the chair doing his panic hands, going red in the face and panting. He wasn't buying into this extra support business. 
The OT told us not to worry that most children hate the chair at first and to just try him with small bursts of it. Small bursts, he had a big blimmin' long burst of it the next day and was quite happy.


So far he has sat in his chair for some t.v watching. Eastenders until his Dad told him he wasn't to watch that rubbish and put Top Gear on for him. He has used it for feeding. He ate six spoons of chocolate pudding whilst in the chair. He has even had a sleep in the chair. Good old chair.










I still hate the colour.