Lazy Baby Syndrome

I feel like I do a pretty good job of detailing how hard Maddie works week in and week out. There’s another side to Maddie that comes out as well, that I haven’t shared. I like to call this Maddie’s “Lazy Baby Syndrome.”

Now if you’re wondering, you’re not going to find Lazy Baby Syndrome on WebMD. Nonetheless, my daughter has this syndrome. Maddie will only do what she likes to do. During her therapy sessions, she will constantly try to take shortcuts to get to her end goal. If that goal is a toy, Maddie will cheat the process or just flat out use emotional manipulation to get that toy.

I think a lot of parents of a child with Angelman Syndrome would tell you their child is more emotionally intelligent than they let on. A lot of the Angelman community is nonverbal, so they learn to adapt to situations without using words. Maddie knows how to control a situation with her smiles and cries. She also does a lot of experimenting with her facial expressions to see what kind of reaction she’ll get out of us.

We always say that Maddie is physically strong. She just doesn’t know how to put everything together yet. This is why therapy has been so beneficial. However, Maddie has decided she doesn’t want to do certain things. For example, Maddie started to hold her own bottle at the Angelman Family Conference back in August. She was so proud of being able to do this, she continued to hold her bottle for the next week or so, but then she stopped.

I thought she might’ve stopped due to a regression, which can happen with Angelman children. Much to my surprise, Maddie snatched the bottle out of my hand and brought it to her mouth when she wanted her bottle immediately. As soon as the bottle got to her mouth she dropped her hand to the side and expected me to hold it. She does the same thing with her water cup. We bring it to her tray and instead of her grabbing it, she’ll lean her head forward and try to have us guide the straw to her mouth.

It took us awhile to realize that we are being manipulated by our little princess. I remember sitting in a waiting room holding Maddie’s bottle while she sat in her stroller. I decided enough was enough. I brought her hands to the bottle and she proceeded to hold it on her own. She even drank the whole bottle.

Our occupational therapist has noted that Maddie knows how to use her hands, she just prefers if someone else does it for her. That’s why in our house we have stopped being enablers. Sure, Maddie might be frustrated that her game is up, but we’re going to cure her from her laziness.

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-Written by Adam Birchmeier