Hey guys, so I'm looking for some advice here. I work with infants in a daycare setting, taking care of 8 infants with the help of one other teacher. Obviously there's a lot of holding the infants in rocking chairs to feed them their bottles or rock them to sleep. I've had bad shoulders for years now, tendonitis and bursitis in both. Both of my shoulders have been hurting because of those repetitive motions, but mostly my left shoulder because I hold the infants using my left arm. I'm not sure what to do about the pain because I enjoy working with the infants, I don't want to quit my job, and I feel like physical therapy isn't an option. I've gone to physical therapy before and they always tell me to stop lifting the babies, which will mean I can't do my job. If you guys have any suggestions as to what I can do, it would be greatly appreciated.

Do you already do simple strength training, stretching or yoga?

there are a lot of simple poses you can do to improve shoulder strength and tendon flexibility, which can alleviate some of the stress and consequential pain your shoilders are experiencing. yoga and basic strength exercises helped me get rid of my neck pain entirely.

you don't have to do a ton each day, consistent yoga for 10 or 15 minutes a day seems to make a much bigger difference for me than an hour once a week.

Find a very good massage therapist - they can help improve mobility.

Yoga. Yea, I know it sounds simplistic - the key is to find what works for you. I tried a lot of stuff over the years and eventually stumbled on a book with pictures. I find video annoying - they're either too fast or run too slow. With the book I could just pick the forms that focused on my needs, and do them at my own pace. Now I've memorized a handful and do them as needed.

Then exercise. I know, it's hard advice, and hard to do when you have pain (I've had chronic pain for 30 years now, so I'm very sympathetic to what you're dealing with). But improving flexibility (yoga) and strength (yoga and targeted exercises) are the big "fixers".

Ouch that's a tough one, because ultimately it's a hands-on role and the repetitive nature is going to continue to fatigue your shoulders.

Rather than hold them in your arms, are you able to lay them in your lap or down your thighs resting against your chest when feeding them? This might be easier to do if sitting on the ground rather than a chair.

With sleep, it's a more long term solution but can you build routines where they settle and sleep in the cot rather than being held first? Generally by 9 months or so I find most babies are capable of falling asleep with a pat in the cot than a rock in the arms.

The usual key to repetitive stress difficulties is breaks, stretching, and range of motion.

There's no way to really guide you to specific stretches without evaluating you in person, but it's easy enough to find YouTube clips that focus on rotator cuff support, and I think that's always a good place to start trying things.

But just doing some shoulder & neck rolls, arm rotations, along with keeping the affected area warm and loose between baby petting sessions would help at least a little.

You can also talk to your employer about using gear that supports the babies, taking some of the pressure off of the shoulder and distributing it across a wider area. Iirc, there's a brand called ergobaby that's feasible for a childcare facility. Some baby slings aren't realistic in that setting, but the one I'm thinking of (if that isn't the right brand) is simple enough to be able to swap babies out quickly, and they're easy to clean as well. I know that a few of my patients (I did home health as a nurse's assistant) that had disabilities used similar gear when taking care of their own infants, so the use case is in line with yours.

I only did a few cases taking care of babies, and they weren't exactly in the best situation or I wouldn't have been there. But I did run into enough pedes nurses over the years that swore by that kind of sling

there are devices for rocking babies. search for "baby rocker", "baby bouncer" or "electric baby swing"