Re: Dancing feet!

[Guest guest]

That is wonderful ! Congratulations to you both !

DeeDee

California

[Guest guest]

, So happy for you and Claire! Can't wait to see Grace twirling

and whirling too! And as far as sounding prideful, I think you should

be very very prideful!!! =)

& Grace

>

> Today we visited Claire's ballet class.. the first parent

observation

> day of the year.. and wanted to share how it went.

>

> She is one of about 10 girls, ages 5 and 6, in the class.. part of

> our city's classical ballet school. We watched her do points and

> flexes of her feet with legs flat on the floor and also straight up

> in the air; plie's (knee bends with feet flat); multiple straight-

up

> jumps to and from first position; going straight up on tiptoe from

> first position then back down again, over and over; balancing on

one

> foot while lifting the other .. all in the middle of the floor, not

> holding on to the barre.. Running leaps, skips and gallops; high

> marching steps, in which they were told to point their feet " from

the

> ankle down, not just the toes " .

>

> These details would no doubt bore most other parents to tears..

(and

> maybe I'm assuming too much to think YOU all would be interested!

=)

> All parents, of course, get a kick out of seeing their kids

> performing in this way, but I knew that many of you would

appreciate

> the extra levels of feelings present for a parent of a child with

> clubfoot..

>

> She did not stand out as different from the other girls at all..

and

> in fact did much of the exercise as well or better than others. (I

> honestly don't intend to sound prideful, just thought it might be

of

> help to hear!)

>

> I spoke to the teacher after class, and for the first time told her

> about her clubfoot. She had no idea, and would never have known. I

> left feeling that, at this level at least, it seems a great way to

> sneak in 'therapy' for Claire's foot. She seemed to be doing many

> good exercises for it, and is building strength and balance. I

don't

> know how long we'll stick with it, but she loves it for now!

>

> and Claire

> left cf, 6/29/00

>

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Avery sounds lovely and it is great that she is developing well in so many

areas of her life.

I agree with everybody else who is saying not to worry about when Avery

walks. It just suddenly happens! They say up to 22 months is still normal,

and I know of kids who don¹t have club foot and they haven¹t walked til 2

years old. Jasper was pushing his walker and holding hands assisted walking

since 11 months, and we never thought it would happen then Jasper started

walking just last week at 18 months but I know how much we let these things

worry us ­ I was getting very stressed three weeks ago about it.

Also, I really think there is something in the ankle strength ­ his ankles

are very wobbly, and he really digs his toes in to balance. He didn¹t stand

by himself til after he took his first steps, and his balance on his feet

took a long time to develop. I think some kids just want to feel very secure

before they take their first steps. Some kids are gung ho and just try and

fall and it doesn¹t worry them, others want to feel that they are in control

and wont take those first steps til they are totally sure they are ready.

Here are some (probably obvious) things we have done with jasper. If she is

walking holding hands, you can encourage her to hold with just one hand (in

short bursts so she isn¹t overwhelmed), another thing we did with jasper was

to lean him against our knees (his back on our legs) and let him prop

himself forward to try and balance. The way he took his first steps was

wearing some mittens for the first time (you could try socks for a fun game)

­ I think he thought he was still holding our hands! We would also have him

between my husband and I and try to cajole him to walk to each of us, even

just letting go of our hands to pass onto each other for a few seconds. We

would clap and cheer when he succeeded. We also taught him to stand up by

himself by sitting in front of him and doing exactly when we wanted him to

do so he could copy ­ up on one foot lean on one hand and push off to stand.

We did this over and over last week til he copied (and he stands up

beautifully now) - before this he would try to stand up by putting both

hands up in the air (as if we were going to lift him) and then use his tummy

muscles to stand, which he managed to do every one in ten tries, with a lot

of effort. Also, nearly everyone I know says that their kids took their

first few steps then didn¹t do it again for up to 6 weeks, then walking just

accelerated from there. Don¹t expect her to walk when she is feeling tired

as it is hard to keep good balance when you are even a bit sleepy.

Also, there is a lot of people who say that different kids concentrate on

different parts of their development during this time ­ cognition and speech

vs walking and movement, all of these things take up so much energy!

Anyway, don¹t worry, if she is walking assisted and using a pusher,

encourage these things and she¹ll be motoring on her own when she feels

ready!

Tamsin

Mother to Jasper (5 may 04, bilateral cf, 14hrs ddb)

> Keep up the good work Claire!!! We are all so proud to hear how well you are

> doing...

>

> So when do I get worried about Avery walking? Do I seek another opinion about

> this... the pediatrician and ped ortho think it is just a matter of time that

> she just isn't ready... it isn't their child so it makes me question is there

> more that I can be doing to help her... I had her in therapy and she thought

> there should not be a problem either so where else do I go .... she is so very

> strong but her ankles just seem 'loose' to me.... they can rotate so much when

> she is standing....

>

> Thanks for listening and I am really so happy to hear success stories!!!

>

> mom to Avery 6.24.04 lf club foot

>