Re: Another reducing hours experience and question

February 28, 2006

Marcy,

My son's doctor said the same thing when I asked him about reducing the hours

in the FAB. My son is due to end the 23/7 in the FAB in April. I jumped the gun

and asked the doctor what he would recommend as far as coming down in the hours.

He said he feels confident that 12-14 hours would be good. I, too, have read

what everyone is saying on the boards, so I emailed Dr. ponseti with the same

question because I had my doubts. We have been consulting with Dr. P regarding

my son's progress and Dr. P said that we should go by what our ortho recommends.

Nevertheless, I do intend on coming down in hours more gradually - I'd rather

err on the side of caution.

Marcy Schwab wrote:

My son Ethan is just 6 months old and finished his 23/7 DBB wear this past

week. We see Dr. Herzenberg in Baltimore and he told us that we could go down

to just 12 hours per day...nights only basically with some time in the morning.

We have been very fortunate thus far with the ease with which Ethan tolerates

his shoes at night. He has been sleeping extremely well (except when one of his

shoes got stuck in the crib slats, even with his sleep sack on!) We ordered a

crib mesh bumper from One Step Ahead which we are eagerly anticipating.

I asked Dr. Herzenberg directly about slowly reducing Ethan's shoe hours, and

he felt very confident that it wasn't necessary. I even asked him about all of

the experiences of people on this listserv! He, again, felt strongly that he'd

prefer to have Ethan begin to develop neurologically and physically like any

other kid. I was just curious if anyone else had this type of experience. If

so, is there a danger that in a few weeks, a month, or whatever that we will

have more difficulty at night?

Many thanks to everyone.

Marcy

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February 28, 2006

Marcy,

Tenny was 10 months when we reduce his hours. Our doctor told us the same

thing. He was worried about developmental delays and wanted Tenny to have a

chance to develop. I told him I wanted to reduce gradually. He didn't think

Tenny needed that as much as he needed to learn how to stand and walk. He is a

good doc, and he does beautiful things with feet, but on this I was a bit

worried. I told him I was more comfortable with a bit more gradual reduction.

He basically told me to make sure that Tenny had as much time out of his shoes

as he could, to make his down time his shoe time. What exactly he meant by that

I didn't ask. I just took is as sleep time was shoe time, car time was shoe

time.

Since I am the one putting on the shoes, I get to decide how long they stay on.

We did reduce faster than many other have. We did 20 hours for 2 weeks, then

down to 18 for a few weeks. Then we did 16-18 hours until Tenny was walking

(which was 13 months). Tenny is about 19 months now and we still try to get

about 14 hours a day. His foot is a bit stiff still, so I figure a few more

hours won't hurt it any. The last time we went back to the doctor, his foot

looked really good. The Dr. Showalter asked how many hours we were getting in

shoes and it told him 14. He said good, keep it up.

As far as developmental issues, we have seen none that could be caused by too

much brace time. Tenny climbs more than any of my other children did. In fact,

he is a little hurricane.

I can't tell you whether you will have problems or not if you reduce straight

down. This is what we did and it worked.

Mom to Tenny rcf 7/04 FAB 14/7

Another reducing hours experience and question

My son Ethan is just 6 months old and finished his 23/7 DBB wear this past

week. We see Dr. Herzenberg in Baltimore and he told us that we could go down

to just 12 hours per day...nights only basically with some time in the morning.

We have been very fortunate thus far with the ease with which Ethan tolerates

his shoes at night. He has been sleeping extremely well (except when one of his

shoes got stuck in the crib slats, even with his sleep sack on!) We ordered a

crib mesh bumper from One Step Ahead which we are eagerly anticipating.

I asked Dr. Herzenberg directly about slowly reducing Ethan's shoe hours,

and he felt very confident that it wasn't necessary. I even asked him about all

of the experiences of people on this listserv! He, again, felt strongly that

he'd prefer to have Ethan begin to develop neurologically and physically like

any other kid. I was just curious if anyone else had this type of experience.

If so, is there a danger that in a few weeks, a month, or whatever that we will

have more difficulty at night?

Many thanks to everyone.

Marcy

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February 28, 2006

Marcy,

I just wish there was one right answer to this question. It has been

plaguing people ever since I've been on these groups and I'm sure

long before that. I think the reason is that there is no REAL right

or wrong answer. We know what Dr. Ponseti recommends, we know what

works for some people, and we know what hasn't worked for others. I

do wish the doctors would all do it the same -- it sure would make it

easier to advise people! : ) Now, Dr. Ponseti himself has been known

to tweak the bracing schedule to suit different children, but I'm not

sure if he has actually dropped anyone directly from 23/7 to 12-14

except maybe a much older child.

My advise, do what you feel comfortable with. There are no brace

police. If you feel 100% comfortable with Dr. Herzenberg's bracing

prescription then try it out. If Ethan is not going to tolerate it

well you will probably know within a couple days. If he starts

waking up at night or fighting the shoes, you know it is just a

tolerance problem and you can always go back to longer hours. If you

don't feel comfortable with it, if you want err on the cautious side,

stick with the longer hours for a while, do your own version of the

reduction in hours. If you really want another opinion on the

bracing schedule feel free to ask someone else, Drs. Ponseti and

Morcuende are replying to these kinds of questions constantly.

Oh, I almost forgot about Dr. H's reasoning saying he wants Ethan to

get more time to develop physically and neurologically like any other

kid -- this is one thing to take into consideration, if he has a true

reason for saying this like if Ethan was showing some signs of delay

in his gross motor skills, then I'd be more inclined to follow his

instructions more closely. But typically, as we hear from all of the

many experiences here there is just no hard evidence to support the

idea that the brace slows the kids down developmentally. Another way

to handle it, if you still want to do more hours but want to give him

his active free time, is to schedule his brace time around his most

and least active times of the day. If you guys normally get up and

get going out running around or to daycare in the morning maybe they

shoes could come off in the morning right before you leave the house

but then go back on after lunch for nap and/or a more quiet time of

the day. Then on again after dinner. This way he is getting his

active time out of the brace, but the hours together can still add up.

Sorry this is so long!

HTH,

>

> My son Ethan is just 6 months old and finished his 23/7 DBB wear

this past week. We see Dr. Herzenberg in Baltimore and he told us

that we could go down to just 12 hours per day...nights only

basically with some time in the morning. We have been very fortunate

thus far with the ease with which Ethan tolerates his shoes at

night. He has been sleeping extremely well (except when one of his

shoes got stuck in the crib slats, even with his sleep sack on!) We

ordered a crib mesh bumper from One Step Ahead which we are eagerly

anticipating.

>

> I asked Dr. Herzenberg directly about slowly reducing Ethan's

shoe hours, and he felt very confident that it wasn't necessary. I

even asked him about all of the experiences of people on this

listserv! He, again, felt strongly that he'd prefer to have Ethan

begin to develop neurologically and physically like any other kid. I

was just curious if anyone else had this type of experience. If so,

is there a danger that in a few weeks, a month, or whatever that we

will have more difficulty at night?

>

> Many thanks to everyone.

> Marcy

>

> ---------------------------------

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> Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.

>

February 28, 2006

Our son, Karter, was recasted in Sept by Dr. Ponseti at 15 months.

we then did 22hour/day, Till the end of Dec., then went to 18

hours, we are still doing 16 hours until we see him again at the

end of March. I think that reducing the hours slowly is easier for

him. He was sick this past weekend and had the shoes off for almost

24 hours and when we put them back on he was NOT happy. So, even

with him being older and walking now Dr. P. felt that we needed to

go down slowly. This I am sure is due to multiple relapses and his

temperment. So just wanted to point out that everycase is a little

bit different. If it were me I would reduce slowly, but this is

because we have had relapses. I know some children have no problems

at all, it would be better to be safe then sorry.

Tabitha

Brittanie 6 years

Karter 19 months blcf

> >

> > My son Ethan is just 6 months old and finished his 23/7 DBB wear

> this past week. We see Dr. Herzenberg in Baltimore and he told us

> that we could go down to just 12 hours per day...nights only

> basically with some time in the morning. We have been very

fortunate

> thus far with the ease with which Ethan tolerates his shoes at

> night. He has been sleeping extremely well (except when one of

his

> shoes got stuck in the crib slats, even with his sleep sack on!)

We

> ordered a crib mesh bumper from One Step Ahead which we are

eagerly

> anticipating.

> >

> > I asked Dr. Herzenberg directly about slowly reducing Ethan's

> shoe hours, and he felt very confident that it wasn't necessary.

I

> even asked him about all of the experiences of people on this

> listserv! He, again, felt strongly that he'd prefer to have Ethan

> begin to develop neurologically and physically like any other

kid. I

> was just curious if anyone else had this type of experience. If

so,

> is there a danger that in a few weeks, a month, or whatever that

we

> will have more difficulty at night?

> >

> > Many thanks to everyone.

> > Marcy

> >

> > ---------------------------------

> > Yahoo! Mail

> > Bring photos to life! New PhotoMail makes sharing a breeze.

> >

February 28, 2006

Sounds to me like you made it over the hump smoothly! Good for you! In a few

weeks/months if he begins to have sleep issues, look at bar LENGTH, not hours;

when he starts to out grow the bar he may very well begin to cry a lot at night.

s.