You can also look at a video in our Physio Video section on how this can occur during child birth.

See the following link: 3D Medical Animation: Shoulder Dystocia Birth Injury

On our Physio Shop we have a book on paediatric massage which might shed some light on this issue for you.

The link to this is: Pediatric Massage Therapy 2nd Edition

Different muscles can be used to hold the arm out in front as opposed to holding the arm over the head. This might indicate some residual weakness and a good paediatrics physiotherapist should be able to put the parts together in a young child but at the bay level clinical assessment of the specifics is very difficult.

To be very frank the plasticity of the nervous system in a new born is amazing. Perhaps in part because it is still evolving. We see brachial plexus injuries in adults all the time and often these recover very well indeed. I would therefore remain very optimistic that your child will have an excellent, if not full recovery. Just keep any eye on things but it sounds like the progression is already in the right direction. Do involved the local paeds Physio in assisting you to form a home based program in the coming months for play therapy that will stimulate movement in the directions that are perhaps still needing a boost.

We wish you well