Abbi

April 29, 2005

My daughter is 10 months old. She has been seeing Dr. Ponseti in Iowa

and he has done a wonderful job. My question to you all is--she has

been in her shoes now for 7 or so months and as she is starting to

stand--it seems that her left foot is pronated a certain way. In

otherwords, she does not stand straight on her foot--it seems that she

either puts pressure on her toes or on the side of her foot versus

straight down. Her right foot is perfect...

Did this happen to anyone? Should I be concerned?

May 1, 2005

I think you should have Abbi checked out- when Jake relapsed, he was

walking on the outer edge of his foot and on his toes. It's better to

find a relapse sooner rather than later.

Kassia

3/22/01 (Lt clubfoot, ATTT surgery April 2004)

and 11/22/02

May 1, 2005

Hi,

Your situation sounds very much like ours at the moment. Our

daugher,

Sophia (12/8/03 -- 17 months), is bilateral and her left foot is also

starting to turn in. She wears the shoes, too. At our last

appointment, Dr. Ponseti told us to increase her wear time back up to

16/24, they increased the rotation of the DBB out to 70 degrees on

the

left foot, and also increased the dorsiflection angle. We are to go

back to Dr. Ponseti in a few months. If these changes don't do

anything (which I doubt they will), we will have to go through

another

round of castings (he said probably two sets of casts lasting about

2.5

to 3 weeks each). I strongly recommend that you call Dr. Ponseti

and/or email photos of Abbi's foot. I don't know how Abbi's

dorsiflection is on each of her feet, but it's never too early to

consider Physical Therapy. We only just now started it for Sophia.

Since her left foot isn't functioning as well as the right, she is

really starting to favor her left side when she's walking and

running.

The PT's can really give you some good exercises to do at home to

improve the performance of the foot. HTH.

mom of Sophia bicf 12/8/03 and non cf Chloe 11/16/01

May 1, 2005

Thank you so very much for your response. It does make me feel better to know

that others has gone through this. What to do next is the question. Getting

Therapy would be a great idea because she is behind in her general motor skills

anyway so anything helps, I am assuming. I would hate for anything to happen and

to have casts put back on would absolutely kill me, but if it is for my

daughter--I will do what it takes. I am going back to see Dr. Ponseti on the

18th of May. He is in Spain until then apparently. I use to go see Dr. Matt

Dobbs here in Saint Louis who studied under Dr. Ponseti. He is one of the best

besides Dr. Ponseti himself, but he seemed to be using Abbi as research--he was

acting as if he had never treated complex bilateral clubfeet. He casted, and

performed the tenotomy and then placed Abbi in the Markell Shoes which tore her

feet apart. We went to Dr. Ponseti for a second opinion and thank goodness we

did because the tenotomy was too short and her feet would not

have faired well in the Markell shoes. She has a high arch now due to the

treatment done by Dr. Dobbs so Dr. Ponseti had to fix some things, but boy does

Abbi's feet look ten times better. If only I can make sure that her left foot is

normal. She has gotten better at standing on her left foot straight...I guess

practice makes perfect, but I may keep her shoes on longer than I do now and

hope that on May 18th, Dr. Ponseti says good news....

Thanks again for your message. Becky

ck_cz persbus@...> wrote:

Hi,

Your situation sounds very much like ours at the moment. Our

daugher,

Sophia (12/8/03 -- 17 months), is bilateral and her left foot is also

starting to turn in. She wears the shoes, too. At our last

appointment, Dr. Ponseti told us to increase her wear time back up to

16/24, they increased the rotation of the DBB out to 70 degrees on

the

left foot, and also increased the dorsiflection angle. We are to go

back to Dr. Ponseti in a few months. If these changes don't do

anything (which I doubt they will), we will have to go through

another

round of castings (he said probably two sets of casts lasting about

2.5

to 3 weeks each). I strongly recommend that you call Dr. Ponseti

and/or email photos of Abbi's foot. I don't know how Abbi's

dorsiflection is on each of her feet, but it's never too early to

consider Physical Therapy. We only just now started it for Sophia.

Since her left foot isn't functioning as well as the right, she is

really starting to favor her left side when she's walking and

running.

The PT's can really give you some good exercises to do at home to

improve the performance of the foot. HTH.

mom of Sophia bicf 12/8/03 and non cf Chloe 11/16/01

May 2, 2005

Becky,

Try not to worry too much. Dr. Ponseti is back from Spain now (I spoke

with him last week). I understand your feelings about the castings,

but it is better than some of the alternatives out there . We're

probably looking at recastings in the middle of summer with a highly

mobile toddler who loves to run. Ugh. She is going to be so mad!

Anyway, what I'm saying is, if you do have to do more castings at least

you'll have company Again, the Ponseti method doesn't really

encourage PT, but each child is different and has differing issues.

That's one thing I wish we had done earlier when I first starting

thinking that there was a slight difference in her feet (because now

that she's running it's not so slight anymore--it's quite

significant). Alas, I hadn't been encouraged to do PT and I'm

regretful now. HTH.

Chris

May 2, 2005

Don't beat yourself up about PT- little kids don't have much of an

attention span, so PT isn't all that helpful honestly. It's more to

teach *you* how to do the exercises with them at home. Jake went to PT

from age 9 mos to 15 mos, but it was because he was slowed in other

developmental areas, like rolling over, crawling, and going from lying

down to sitting up...he didn't have PT because of his clubfoot.

Good luck,

Kassia

3/22/01 (Lt clubfoot, ATTT surgery April 2004)

and 11/22/02

May 2, 2005

Wow... my situation is about the same too. My son Ian (12/2/03

17mos), is unilateral and his foot is also starting to turn in. We

increased his FAB time and are going for a second opinion soon. I'm

really hoping we don't have to do casts again! We just started PT

last week. I'm hoping it helps. He really favors his non-clubfoot.

Anne

> Hi,

>

> Your situation sounds very much like ours at the moment. Our

> daugher,

> Sophia (12/8/03 -- 17 months), is bilateral and her left foot is

also

> starting to turn in. She wears the shoes, too. At our

last

> appointment, Dr. Ponseti told us to increase her wear time back up

to

> 16/24, they increased the rotation of the DBB out to 70 degrees on

> the

> left foot, and also increased the dorsiflection angle. We are to

go

> back to Dr. Ponseti in a few months. If these changes don't do

> anything (which I doubt they will), we will have to go through

> another

> round of castings (he said probably two sets of casts lasting about

> 2.5

> to 3 weeks each). I strongly recommend that you call Dr. Ponseti

> and/or email photos of Abbi's foot. I don't know how Abbi's

> dorsiflection is on each of her feet, but it's never too early to

> consider Physical Therapy. We only just now started it for

Sophia.

> Since her left foot isn't functioning as well as the right, she is

> really starting to favor her left side when she's walking and

> running.

> The PT's can really give you some good exercises to do at home to

> improve the performance of the foot. HTH.

>

> mom of Sophia bicf 12/8/03 and non cf Chloe 11/16/01

May 2, 2005

Abbi is ten months and is not crawling yet nor is she pulling herself up so the

pediatrician told us that we are for sure behind but due to her condition, there

is no need to worry about it until she is 1--which is right around the corner. I

do hope we can prevent more casts...I am so happy to be out of that stage and to

put Abbi through that again would absolutely kill me.

What you have said has made all the sense in the world. Abbi of course fell

asleep in the car this evening as I got home late and therefore is asleep

without her shoes. It makes me so nervous. She is bilateral clubfeet, but her

left is for sure more severe or at least is not keeping as well as the right. I

am hoping that all is okay. We shall see on the 18th of this month...

Becky

Kassia and Seth Fultz Ksfultz@...> wrote:

Don't beat yourself up about PT- little kids don't have much of an

attention span, so PT isn't all that helpful honestly. It's more to

teach *you* how to do the exercises with them at home. Jake went to PT

from age 9 mos to 15 mos, but it was because he was slowed in other

developmental areas, like rolling over, crawling, and going from lying

down to sitting up...he didn't have PT because of his clubfoot.

Good luck,

Kassia

3/22/01 (Lt clubfoot, ATTT surgery April 2004)

and 11/22/02

May 2, 2005

Thanks for your email. I am hopeful that we won't have to do more casting, but

if it will help--so be it. So Dr. Ponseti is back? I wonder why we can't go in

until the 18th. Is he not seeing patients until then...I would so rather go

sooner.

Thanks for your email and I wish you luck with your mobile toddler. I think the

best thing for me to do is to have some therapist at least look at my daughter.

They have a program here in Saint Louis called First Steps which is an early

intervention to those with disabilities. I called them and we thank goodness did

not qualify because Abbi is not at a 50 % delay, but she is for sure delayed in

her general motor skills.