Hi I'm new!

[MylilFroggy1]

Hi my name is Christy,

My little boy Jackson was born July/ 24 /2007 with bilateral club feet. He had his first set of casts put on when he was 4 days old. He had six set of casts then the tanotamy surgery. He had to wear his last set of casts after surgery for 3 weeks. Then his ponseti brace right away. At first he could only have the brace off for 6 hours a day then it went to 10 now he only has to wear it nights and naps until age 3. I was very thankful for this but it is sort of a problem because he seems to have a hard time sleeping with the brace. He just turned 11 months old and is still waking up every 2-3 hours all night some nights.Without his brace he will sleep 5-6 hours comfortably. Sometimes I take off his brace early in the morning so we can both get a few hours of sleep, but then he has to make up those hours during the day. It is a drag because he just learned to crawl 3 weeks ago. I'm not sure what to do because we are losing sleep but he needs his freedom to crawl and explore. He is such a good and happy baby. He doesn't seem to mind his brace. He has even learned to crawl and pull up on furniture to stand with it on. It just makes me feel bad.  Does anyone else have this probem?

[olliemom]

Hi Christy,  I'm casie, my little boy had the same problem for a while, he also had the ponseti brace, have you tried substituting brace time during the day with "walking practice"?  Take off the braces and walk him around, his weight will keep his feet straight and flat and he'll be more inclined to walk without the "boots" than crawl with them on.  If he's doing good with his dr. try it when he goes a little while in the mornings without his boots to  "sleep in" ;) and try foot stretches when he's done with "walking practice" to make up for time lost in the morning.  Once ollie learned to walk his brace time was cut back dramatically because he spent so much time up and about that he seemed to mind the bed boots less.  The boot free days are just over the horizon you'll make through and your little one will love you for it when he's older!