First Week In Braces

Since my post last week my daughters toes have curled even more! Now the 3rd, 4th, and 5th toes are all curling under. I have a feeling that the casting was holding the 3rd & 4th toes up and now that the cast isn't there anymore they are free to curl. The surgery to correct this is a tenotomy of the tendons in the toe/foot. They are too tight and are causing the toes to curl down permanently.

We have submitted photos to our orthopedic doctor to see if putting rolled up cotton under her toes would do anything to correct the tightening without doing surgery. I will update when

we find out the answer!

When we received our ponseti bar and mitchell sandals last week they cut out the leather tongue and provided us with this rubber insert to help distribute the weight of the middle strap. It is our official review that the rubber insert doesn't work. We were unable to tighten the strap small enough to push her ankle into the back of the boot. This caused blisters on her ankles, and also wasn't doing the job of getting her foot into the desired "L" position. After trying it for 6 days we threw in the towel and found our son's original sandals with the intact leather tongue. Thankfully they wore the same size! We were able to tighten the middle strap two holes tighter and get her ankle down into the shoe. MUCH BETTER. We're not sure who made the decision to start

using the rubber insert... but I think it was meant for a baby much bigger than ours.

The bruising in her ankles went away after about three days.

Her feet are still angling downward quite a bit when just relaxed, so I am thinking a tenotomy is in our future for her ankles. Maybe we can take care of the toes at the same time and just have one trip through anesthesia. Who knows!

On a developmental side note, she is already starting to get some strong muscles and can even get her tush in the air a little bit. My mom is convinced she will be an early crawler because I was crawling at 4 months old. Maybe the clubbed feet won't slow this girl down afterall.