Plastic Bar

[Guest guest]

Hello, for those who are curious, I put pictures of the plastic 'bars'

in the photos area. They are nice and strong, lightweight, and of

course fit flatly against the sole of the shoe. In our case the

orthotist makes them out of 'scrap' polypro that is leftover from

making casts. (In any event polypro is very cheap a few dollors for

large sheets). You can get something very similar at Home Depot and

jig-saw it yourselves for a few dollars!

[Guest guest]

Wow, that looks nothing like I thought it would. I see that you had

the same gold adjustable bar that we have (ours is the 14 " ) but I

noticed that the bar wasn't bent on the ends to hold the dorsiflexion

achieved through the casting process. The bar is supposed to be bent

about 15 degrees on each end to help keep the tendon nice and

stretched. How is this achieved with the plastic bars?

Thanks,

& Grace 20mos

urcf FAB 13hrs

>

> Hello, for those who are curious, I put pictures of the

plastic 'bars'

> in the photos area. They are nice and strong, lightweight, and of

> course fit flatly against the sole of the shoe. In our case the

> orthotist makes them out of 'scrap' polypro that is leftover from

> making casts. (In any event polypro is very cheap a few dollors for

> large sheets). You can get something very similar at Home Depot

and

> jig-saw it yourselves for a few dollars!

>

[Guest guest]

Hmmm...that is interesting. I would also wonder about the lack of

dorsiflexion achieved by it ... and I am afraid that my 3 yr old would

make short work of that bar (if you have ever seen a kid walk in their

DBB you will know what I mean!) ... but I could see how that might be

nifty with an infant. Cant imagine that being whacked by that is near

as painful as a metal bar ... but for most babies the dorsiflexion is

such a big deal ...

lol actually, if I thought Kai wouldnt break it I would do something

like that for him since he needs no extra dorsiflexion (crazy foot has

had 45* since the tenotomy, even when everything else was relapsed or

not corrected).

Angel

>

> Hello, for those who are curious, I put pictures of the

plastic 'bars'

> in the photos area. They are nice and strong, lightweight, and of

> course fit flatly against the sole of the shoe. In our case the

> orthotist makes them out of 'scrap' polypro that is leftover from

> making casts. (In any event polypro is very cheap a few dollors for

> large sheets). You can get something very similar at Home Depot and

> jig-saw it yourselves for a few dollars!

>

[Guest guest]

Oh I take your point about the dorsiflexion. You are exactly right

about being great for an infant. I cried so hard when she got that

metal bar, it was like a boat anchor on her little feet. She was a

tiny baby maybe 7-7 1/2 pounds we she got the bar.

My husband and I went to a tool shop and had them make a plastic

one, which worked nicely. It took us about a week to make up. BUT

the orthotist had what you see posted done in 2 weeks. So she only

had the cobbled version we made for a week.

My daughter's have been set at 40 degrees about 4 or 6 weeks after

her casts were off. If you don't need dorsiflexion maybe try to see

if they have the polypro at your clinic. Probably not as important

since you have a big guy, though!

> >

> > Hello, for those who are curious, I put pictures of the

> plastic 'bars'

> > in the photos area. They are nice and strong, lightweight, and

of

> > course fit flatly against the sole of the shoe. In our case the

> > orthotist makes them out of 'scrap' polypro that is leftover

from

> > making casts. (In any event polypro is very cheap a few dollors

for

> > large sheets). You can get something very similar at Home Depot

and

> > jig-saw it yourselves for a few dollars!

> >

>