Experience with clubbed feet?

[pollyanna123]

I found out at my 20-week ultrasound that my baby will most likely have clubbed feet. Does anybody have experience with this? My husband and I would love some feedback about this.

[TEAK's Mom]

One of my best friend's son has a club foot. They were nervous at first, but have found the experience quite manageable. Baby wore a series of positioning casts for the first four months. I think they were changed every other week to accommodate growth. Then, he had an outpatient surgery to cut the achilles tendon. After the surgery, he wore a brace for a month or so, and now wears the brace only at night. He will wear the brace at night until he is two or so.

Does that help?

[pollyanna123]

Yes, thank you. We're trying to focus on the many positives. This should be entirely correctable and shouldn't have any long-term effects on the baby. However, dealing the with casts for several weeks or months seems like it will be difficult. I'm a little worried about how it could affect nursing, for example. From what I can tell online, the casts will go all the way up to the tops of both thighs.

I go back for a follow-up ultrasound on October 13th. From what I can tell online, there's about a 20% chance that the baby doesn't have clubbed feet after all. I'm not holding out much hope, though, since the ultrasound was done by a perinatologist. More good news is that the baby appears to be otherwise healthy and this won't affect my midwife care or homebirth plans.

[TEAK's Mom]

My friend's baby has been a champion nurser. They don't usually put the casts on until a good nursing relationship is established.

Oh, and she says that a Japanese ombuhimo is the easiest baby carrier to use when baby is in his brace. Feel free to pm me if you need info.

Wishing you a fabulous pregnancy and a wonderful birth!

[Devaskyla]

Maybe this will help? http://www.global-help.org/categorie..._clubfoot.html

[pollyanna123]

Originally Posted by TEAK's Mom

My friend's baby has been a champion nurser. They don't usually put the casts on until a good nursing relationship is established.

Oh, and she says that a Japanese ombuhimo is the easiest baby carrier to use when baby is in his brace. Feel free to pm me if you need info.

Wishing you a fabulous pregnancy and a wonderful birth!

This is very helpful, thank you! An excuse to buy a new carrier!!!!!!

The nursing thing is concerning because it took me a while to establish my nursing relationship with my first two. With my first, I'd say we were established within 3 weeks, but my DS was much longer. He was like a little wolverine and we were still talking to the LC at about 5-6 weeks.

All the information I've found so far indicates that the baby should get into the leg casts VERY soon after birth.

[pollyanna123]

Originally Posted by Devaskyla

Maybe this will help? http://www.global-help.org/categorie..._clubfoot.html

This is very helpful! While it's not the long-term prognosis that concerns me, it's still fun to read that Troy Aikman, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Mia Hamm were all treated for clubbed feet as babies!

What concerns me most is putting my newborn through so much, so soon. My dh and I obviously do everything humanly possible to make our babies happy and comfortable during that "4th trimester" and this whole process (the casting, the bracing shoes) just sounds.... uncomfortable.

[Birdie B.]

My daughter was born with bilateral clubfeet, and it was kind of a shock when she was born. We weren't prepared at all, and it was upsetting when we learned about it. Luckily, clubfoot is really easily treatable these days. Here is my advice:
-Find a good pediatric orthopedic doctor now, and try to get a consult
-Read up on the latest treatments - the Ponseti method is the preferred treatment, and it worked wonderfully for my daughter (this video helped us a lot)
-Buy lots of onesies or t-shirts - while the baby is in casts, pants are hard to put on
-Prepare yourself. Your baby will not look like other babies, those adorable baby feet that everyone loves will look a little different. It's ok to feel sad about that. Be prepared for the onslaught of questions and funny looks you get - a baby with casts on her legs gets a lot of attention.

Once we got over the initial shock, her treatment has been easy and is practically complete. At 4 days old, Meadow got casts on both legs, which were changed weekly. Once she was 3 months old, the casting was complete, and she wore special orthopedic shoes that are connected with a metal bar. She wore those 23 hours a day for about 7 months, then only at night for another few months. Now her feet are straight and perfect, and she is walking, no problem! We go to the doctor every 6 months for a checkup, but for now we are done with treatment!

I don't know what to tell you about nursing. In our case it didn't have any effect; in fact I nursed her while they were putting on the casts sometimes to keep her calm! The other stuff is kind of hard: I didn't get to give her baths, she couldn't kick her legs freely, it was a pain to get her in a carrier (we found that the Moby wrap worked great, though), and I missed playing with her little feet. But all in all, it is not such a bad thing, and luckily is easily treatable now. In most cases, surgery isn't even necessary!

Good luck, and let me know if I can answer any more questions!

[cowboyjunki]

Originally Posted by TEAK's Mom

One of my best friend's son has a club foot. They were nervous at first, but have found the experience quite manageable. Baby wore a series of positioning casts for the first four months. I think they were changed every other week to accommodate growth. Then, he had an outpatient surgery to cut the achilles tendon. After the surgery, he wore a brace for a month or so, and now wears the brace only at night. He will wear the brace at night until he is two or so.

Does that help?

My nephew had a club foot and this is almost exactly what they did for him, except I think he wore the brace for 22 hours/day for the first 9 months or so, then only at night. Now he is 2 and can run like the wind and is your normal, active, 2 year old! The only thing I can think of my sister saying is that she has to buy him 2 different size shoes - not sure why. Nordstroms will let you buy each shoe (L & R) in the right size.

[bodhitree]

My DD didn't have a club foot, but she did have hip dysplasia, so we worked with a pediatric orthopedist to correct it. She had to wear a harness to correct the hip dysplasia for about a month, starting when she was only a month old. The harness held her in a pretty restricted position, so in that way it was sort of similar to what you might have to deal with with the casts. It was interesting taking her out in public with her harness on, as she did look different from other babies and we got lots of questions about it. We just would give a very brief explanation and emphasize that she was going to be just fine, and that was usually the end of it. While the harness did restrict her mobility and keep her in kind of an odd physical position, nursing worked out just fine, no problems at all. (Of course, we did have a few weeks to get our nursing relationship established first.)

In terms of carriers, we just used the Moby Wrap, and it was fine. We couldn't do cradle-type positions, but upright positions were easy to manage. I worried a lot about how everything would work once I realized she was going to have to wear the harness, but everything ended up being so much simpler than I thought it would be, and I'm sure it will be the same for you.