Hi,
My daughter Ellie has very mild left hemi, and she's started to pull herself up to walk, sadly she has also extreamly flexable joints, which alothough its an advantage when it comes to moving her arm around it's not when it comes to standing.

She has started to bend her 'good' ankle in to help her with her balance, which now means that both ankles are not developing normally and her supportive boots are not enough to strengthen her ankles so she's going to have splints fitted, now her physio has give me a run through of whats going to happen, but i was just hoping that someone had a personal veiw of what happens and how it helps and what it was like afterwards when your child was using them?

Fingers crossed someone has some experiance on this

If you are talking about AFO's or braces, then yes, my daughter has them. I am not really sure what you are asking, but they don't really bother her at all. She puts them on in the morning and wears them all day long. In the summer time, we tend to switch and she wears them all night long--so she can wear cute little sandals in the summertime.

If you are talking about having them fitted. What we do is they make a cast of her leg, then make the brace. The cast only takes about 10 to 15 minutes at the most, then about two weeks later we get the new brace. It isn't traumatic or anything at all.

As for helping? To be honest I didn't think it helped that much at first, but then she didn't wear it for about three weeks--she had out grown her old set and insurance was slow about the next set--anyways, I noticed that within the first week, she was dragging her left foot a lot more and it was turned in a whole lot more, which caused her to toe walk a whole lot more. After we got her new ones back on, these problems nearly disappeared so I know that they do help.

Hope this helps

Sarah has had AFOs (braces) for a little over a year. While they helped a little bit, it wasn't enough. She started with serial casting (today was the first day actually). They cast her feet into walking casts that she wears all the time. Each week they cut her out of the cast and move her foot a few more degrees towards 90 (she always has her toes pointed out and stands on her toes). I've read a lot about serial casting and that it can help a bit for many children. Perhaps that can help your child??

I had this done as a child, one thing you have to watch out for though it the inflection at the thighs, mine went unchecked and has disintegrated my right hip over the years, I can still bear weight on it, but trying to walk is really painful. My castings went on for 5 years 3,4,5,6 a gap then 8 years old. and really the wedge my dad made worked better, but a friend of mine who had casting done sort of worked except she walks on the sides of her feet now.

Don't let this put a doom and gloom on it for your daughter, things have come on a long way in 20 years. but the human body and any form can only be bent so much.

Thanks for all your replies.

Well she's had her AFO's for a few months now and sadly because they are so big (taking her from a size 4 to a 7) she has started to walk with her toes overlapping, so we're back to square one, and like LeaciesMum said she can't crawl in them or move around much at all so we've been adviced by her physio to take them off and just use her Piedro special shoes, but these are heavey and she finds it hard to lift her feet so not she's dragging or walking on her toes.

So all in all we've not made much progress but we have made some, so i'm determined to stay positive, after all she is doing much better than her Dr thought she would be at this stage

Hi
I was just wondering why the splints are so big. When my little boy was first fitted with splints we really struggled to get shoes that weren't several sizes bigger and he looked ridiculous, like he had huge feet. After our first trip to a shoe shop I cried!! Our physio told us they should only ever be around a size bigger (and wider) and to go back to Orthotics if this wasn't the case. Wen went back and the guy there told us to buy cheap trainers a size bigger than his feet and he took the soles out and was able to fit them on,much to our amazement! It turns out we just weren't trying the right type of shoe and weren't sure of the best way to put them on. We had even gone to a specialist child shoe shop and they had insisted we needed several sizes bigger which turned out to be rubbish. We are now quite good at judging what type of shoe will fit..usually about a size bigger than his feet, a wide fitting shoe and will long velcro straps coming across. We don't just buy cheap shoes either. We usually go somewhere like Brantannas and get nice ones but for a decent price. (Our physio recommended 2 splints, purely for symmetry as his right side fine so we don't have an issue with needing 2 differenty sizes thankfully) It may be more difficult to find girls shoes though.
Susan

Ellie is now walking, well taking a few steps on her own and with her walking frame!! so she no longer uses her splints during the day, instead she now has to sleep with it on, just for a few hours though.

Sadly she's figured out how to take them off, even with a sock covering them, so does anyone have any idea's about how to deal with this? we've tried putting them on when she's sleeping and we end up waking her and her sister up, she won't leave them on if we put her to bed in them and the physio's are running out of ideas, so can anyone else help?

Thank you for the informative posts.

I stand on a 2x2 square of concrete for 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.... my feet hurt so bad I couldn't even rub them. Upon getting out of bed, I would have to grab dressers and hug the walls because it was too painful to stand up and put even minimal pressure on them. I've been through chiropractic care, acupressure, custom orthotics and more gadgets than I care to mention, nothing ever worked. So I admit, I was very sceptical about spending so much money on a pair of shoes, but I finally gave in......and I am soooooo glad that I did!! I've been wearing my Kinetics for 2 months solid and I cannot believe the difference! My feet and legs no longer ache throughout the night, and I can jump out of bed with both feet. I'm even able to exercise again. These shoes are miraculous, to say the least! I loved them so much, I bought a pair of the Orthofeet just for kickin around in. I also got a pair of your flip flops for my vacation in the Keys. Wearing these shoes is like walking on pillows I honestly can't thank you enough. I highly recommend these shoes to anyone that offers from any form of foot pain.....life is too short to not live it to the fullest!

So sad to read this detail. It is a hard time you spend and there must be proper treatment of these problems so that she can live a healthy life like all of us. I read uk essays to find the solution of such problems but it's really hard.

Anyone can develop osteomyelitis. You're more at risk of getting an infection in a bone if you have: recently ... they don't want to use an arm or leg and seem irritable – young children don't always get a high ... If the infection is in a long bone (such as an arm or leg), you may be fitted with a splint so you don't move it as often. by http://epicfollowers.co.uk/

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