Club Feet

When Logan was born he had the most precious little feet that were all twisted inward. These first few pics were taken right after he was born. He would curl his legs up into himself like a little frog and it was super cute. The next day when the pediatrician came to check him out he referred us to an orthopedic specialist for his club feet and the treatment was to begin as soon as possible.

The first step in the process was plaster casting. The doctor would stretch his feet to as straight as he could keep them and then they would hold it while they casted him. At first we would go back every few days to be recasted but by the second week we had once a week appointments. Each cast you could tell that his feet were getting straighter. The picture below shows his left leg says No because the doctor felt it was stretched to where it needed to be so that cast was to stay on for two weeks without change. The other foot, which was slightly worse, had an extra week.

This next picture shows that his left leg had moved onto the next step, splints. They casted his left leg in a fiberglass cast and then cut it off immediately. We then put on a sock and ace bandage it closed. He was to wear it for 20 hours a day. 2 hours off in the morning and 2 hours off at night. We were then told we would need to begin his stretches that he will need to do his entire life in order to keep his muscles from wanting to return to the club position. As you can see his right leg still had the plaster cast so no full baths yet!


Finally he was able to have both legs in splints! It was exciting to give him a bath and not have to worry about getting the casts wet but splints also meant stretching and it was HORRIBLE! He would scream and scream and scream until he turned purple and would stop breathing only to start screaming again. We had to do it four times for two min and it was heartbreaking. It was supposed to be getting better but it didn't seem like it was. So we started going to physical therapy once a week where she taught us some good techniques and massaged his cute little feet so they softened up.

Finally after two months he has graduated to the Dobbs brace! He has had this cool new brace for three weeks now. His stretches no longer make him cry but his right heel still isn't stretched all the way so we are working on that as well as keeping the flexibility he has gained. For right now he wears the brace 20 hours a day just like the splints and we stretch him about forty minutes a day. His little calf muscles are finally coming along but the doctor said he will always have little chicken legs. Hopefully soon he will graduate to wearing the brace only while he is sleeping. Although each case is different I believe he will wear the brace while he sleeps for up to two years. After that time he will just need to continue to do some daily stretches but he should walk and crawl at the normal times.
We are glad that this method of correcting club feet is used now. If he were five or ten years older they would have automatically done surgery to cut the muscles and then casted him to have it heal up in the right way. With this series of casting there has been no need for surgery so far! We have an appointment next week so we will find out when we can graduate to wearing them only while sleeping. I will be grateful for that because right now he ruins a lot of things with that heavy bar and it is difficult to feed him. Wish us luck!