Re: ? w/dobbs brace & blocks

[Guest guest]

Niki,

Well I have to say I have no idea about these new walking blocks (I

call them toe pads, but it sounds from your description like walking

blocks may be more accurate in this case). My son has the white

rubbery ones that you've probably seen here before - they are just

like a very thick tennis shoe sole.

Can you post a pic to the CFPics site? I would be interested to see

them.

You say his ankles were rolling before? In the brace or out of the

brace? If in the brace, how so? I'm just wondering here, b/c I

thought the AFO would prevent that.

As to your question about him not moving around as much, I would

definitely think that it is just because he is adjusting to the new

" features " of the brace and the fit of the boot. Just keep an eye on

things and if he doesn't start getting the hang of it in a few days,

maybe a week, you could run it by a and see what she or Dr.

Dobbs thinks.

Mom to Jenna (4/7/01) & Sam (9/25/04, RCF, Dobbs brace, 12-14 hrs/day)

>

> I have a question regarding the Dobbs brace with " walking blocks " --not

> sure what they're called. But my 1 year son just got a new bigger brace-

> -he's outgrown his other. We asked to add these blocks to help him when

> he stands and learns to walk so his ankles won't roll as much as they

> were. Well these blocks aren't like what i've seen in pix on this site,

> but are made of metal, like the bar, and are almost square looking(if

> that sort of helps describe it?)with treads on the bottom, which i

> think will be nice to prevent slipping--he's only had it for a few days

> now, but is not standing up on it like he always did with his old

> braces. It is quite a bit taller(just a little shy of his knees) and

> weighs more because of this stepping piece. He just seems bothered by

> it and doesn't move around as much. There are not any red spots when I

> take the brace off, so I don't think that there is a problem with

> that. Is it just something new to him, that he'll be moving around in

> no time, or should I be concerned?--He didn't seem to be slowed down

> when we got his last new brace, but I could be wrong.

> He's 1 year old(yesterday!), and wears the Dobbs brace about 15 hours a

> day--mostly at night, but a few hours in the morning.

>

> Thanks--Niki & Mason

>

[Guest guest]

-

I guess ankles rolling wasn't really the correct way to put it.-you know

how the dobb's brace is without those toe pads and it's about an inch or

two off the ground-well when he was standing in his old brace he could

tilt forward onto the ball part of the foot, which isn't good for the

ankles-according to them. Hopefully we should be able to get some pix

taken this weekend and I'll post them on the site so you can see these

other metal blocks that I'm talking about.

Also, do you or anyone out there know of any effects on the knees/hips

from wearing the brace and sitting on the knees?-mason seems to still

sit on his knees in a 'W' shape even without the brace on, and we try to

correct his legs by putting them in front of him, but can't catch him

every time. Just wondering if this is hurting his knees or hips, or if

there's anything to worry about with him still being young.

Thanks for all the help!

Niki & Mason(5-23-05, rcf, dobbs brace, 15hr/day)

Re: ? w/dobbs brace & blocks

Niki,

Well I have to say I have no idea about these new walking blocks (I

call them toe pads, but it sounds from your description like walking

blocks may be more accurate in this case). My son has the white

rubbery ones that you've probably seen here before - they are just

like a very thick tennis shoe sole.

Can you post a pic to the CFPics site? I would be interested to see

them.

You say his ankles were rolling before? In the brace or out of the

brace? If in the brace, how so? I'm just wondering here, b/c I

thought the AFO would prevent that.

As to your question about him not moving around as much, I would

definitely think that it is just because he is adjusting to the new

" features " of the brace and the fit of the boot. Just keep an eye on

things and if he doesn't start getting the hang of it in a few days,

maybe a week, you could run it by a and see what she or Dr.

Dobbs thinks.

Mom to Jenna (4/7/01) & Sam (9/25/04, RCF, Dobbs brace, 12-14 hrs/day)

>

> I have a question regarding the Dobbs brace with " walking blocks " --not

> sure what they're called. But my 1 year son just got a new bigger

brace-

> -he's outgrown his other. We asked to add these blocks to help him

when

> he stands and learns to walk so his ankles won't roll as much as they

> were. Well these blocks aren't like what i've seen in pix on this

site,

> but are made of metal, like the bar, and are almost square looking(if

> that sort of helps describe it?)with treads on the bottom, which i

> think will be nice to prevent slipping--he's only had it for a few

days

> now, but is not standing up on it like he always did with his old

> braces. It is quite a bit taller(just a little shy of his knees) and

> weighs more because of this stepping piece. He just seems bothered by

> it and doesn't move around as much. There are not any red spots when I

> take the brace off, so I don't think that there is a problem with

> that. Is it just something new to him, that he'll be moving around in

> no time, or should I be concerned?--He didn't seem to be slowed down

> when we got his last new brace, but I could be wrong.

> He's 1 year old(yesterday!), and wears the Dobbs brace about 15 hours

a

> day--mostly at night, but a few hours in the morning.

>

> Thanks--Niki & Mason

>

[Guest guest]

Nicki,

I would really like to see those pictures, I am just having a hard

time envisioning what this looks like. I do know what you mean about

the rocking forward, Sammy used to do that all the time - actually I

always seemed to see him with one foot rocked forward and one back.

I thought (not sure) that it was actually good for them to be able to

rock back as that would be putting a deep stretch on the achilles

tendon - just the rocking forward was bad b/c it plantar flexes the

foot.

Anyway, your question about the W sitting - this has been discussed

before, probably ad nauseum, on this group and I think there are

varying schools of thought. I asked , Dr. Dobbs' Medical

Assistant, about it once and she said it honestly won't hurt them.

Sammy used to do it all the time, that was the way he sat down in the

brace (just easier to drop down and sit like that) and he would

continue to sit like that when he was not wearing the brace. It was

funny b/c he was so used to it that it was like he couldn't help it.

When he would try to slide down a slide he would always get stuck

because at least on foot would try to go up behind him in that

position while he was sliding. Now that he is in the brace almost

exclusively at night he has pretty much stopped doing the W sit. And

it only took him a couple times at the playground to figure out how

to slide with his feet in front of him. What's interesting is that

he seems to remember what it does though, because if he is going down

a bigger slide and feels like he is going too fast, he'll pull one

leg up to the side just enough to slow himself down a bit.

Hope this helps,

> >

> > I have a question regarding the Dobbs brace with " walking blocks " -

-not

>

> > sure what they're called. But my 1 year son just got a new bigger

> brace-

> > -he's outgrown his other. We asked to add these blocks to help him

> when

> > he stands and learns to walk so his ankles won't roll as much as

they

> > were. Well these blocks aren't like what i've seen in pix on this

> site,

> > but are made of metal, like the bar, and are almost square looking

(if

> > that sort of helps describe it?)with treads on the bottom, which

i

> > think will be nice to prevent slipping--he's only had it for a few

> days

> > now, but is not standing up on it like he always did with his old

> > braces. It is quite a bit taller(just a little shy of his knees)

and

> > weighs more because of this stepping piece. He just seems

bothered by

> > it and doesn't move around as much. There are not any red spots

when I

>

> > take the brace off, so I don't think that there is a problem with

> > that. Is it just something new to him, that he'll be moving

around in

>

> > no time, or should I be concerned?--He didn't seem to be slowed

down

> > when we got his last new brace, but I could be wrong.

> > He's 1 year old(yesterday!), and wears the Dobbs brace about 15

hours

> a

> > day--mostly at night, but a few hours in the morning.

> >

> > Thanks--Niki & Mason

> >

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Niki,

I've been very busy and got way behind on the board, so I'm sorry I'm just now

responding to this.

Mollie got that same brace and didn't take any time at all getting used to it.

She was up and around in it as if it weren't anything different. We did a

little work to ours though. My hubby took the grinder to those short metel

pieces that the shoe rests against because they were sharp corners. Then we

put some thick bandage tape around them. We bought some headliner material at

joann fabric and cut a strip to wrap around the bar itself. The great thing

about this is that the " rough " side of velcro sticks to it, so you can wrap it

around however many times you want and not have to worry about both sides of

velcro ling up. Know what I mean. We did some " doctoring up " to the inner

bootie too. Let me know if your interested in hearing what we did to them.

Happy belated birthday to Mason. We had Mollie's party on Sat the 20th, and I

took her to the park to swing on her actual birthday for just a little Mommy

time. I can't believe it's been a year.

Marci & Mollie 5-25-05

bcf dobbs brace 16/7

bullfrog2427 wrote:

I have a question regarding the Dobbs brace with " walking blocks " --not

sure what they're called. But my 1 year son just got a new bigger brace-

-he's outgrown his other. We asked to add these blocks to help him when

he stands and learns to walk so his ankles won't roll as much as they

were. Well these blocks aren't like what i've seen in pix on this site,

but are made of metal, like the bar, and are almost square looking(if

that sort of helps describe it?)with treads on the bottom, which i

think will be nice to prevent slipping--he's only had it for a few days

now, but is not standing up on it like he always did with his old

braces. It is quite a bit taller(just a little shy of his knees) and

weighs more because of this stepping piece. He just seems bothered by

it and doesn't move around as much. There are not any red spots when I

take the brace off, so I don't think that there is a problem with

that. Is it just something new to him, that he'll be moving around in

no time, or should I be concerned?--He didn't seem to be slowed down

when we got his last new brace, but I could be wrong.

He's 1 year old(yesterday!), and wears the Dobbs brace about 15 hours a

day--mostly at night, but a few hours in the morning.

Thanks--Niki & Mason