Best Foot Forward

As most of my readers will know, Lia Marie was born with bilateral clubfoot. She started treatment 2 weeks after she was born at Welland Hospital. She was casted incorrectly by a orthopaedic surgeon there. The surgeon gave me a lot of information that just wasn't true, and discussed a treatment method that we now know would have made her feet worse.

An important thing for every parent of a child with clubfoot to remember is that it is more important to have a good cast than a fast cast. My midwife was absolutely amazing and wonderful but she let me to believe that it was an emergency for Lemmie to get casts put on RIGHT AWAY and this was simply not the case.

Within a week Lia Marie had kicked out of her casts. Luckily we were moving near Kingston, ON. Ryan sent off an email to the hospital asking if there was anyone there that we could see for Lemmie's feet. He got a really prompt response from the head of orthopedics as well as from Dr. Lindsay Davidson.

Well were we ever lucky in finding Dr. Davidson! It turns out that she is one of four Dr's in Canada that is certified in the Ponseti method of non-surgical correction for clubfoot. The Dr. in Welland said that surgery would probably be imminent for Lia, but Dr. Davidson is fairly confident that we won't have to go that route.

We started out with serial casting. Every week we would go to Kingston and they would remove her casts and replace them. We have been treated so wonderful at Hotel Dieu Hospital. They truly have shown that they care about Lia. After I think about 6 casts, Lia was required to have a tenotomy. That means that they sliced the tendons in the back of her feet so that the foot can come up. This is done with a local anesthetic. She then wore casts for 3 weeks before being moved into her braces. (Perhaps I will write more about the transition from casts to braces at another time - it was rough).

We've been to one appointment since Lia Marie has gotten her braces on. Dr. Davidson was surprised by the progress her feet have made and how well she is adjusting. We don't need to go back to the hospital for one month.

So that's been her treatment for the clubfoot from birth until now.

I've put together a list of things that I would want to tell someone that has a child with clubfoot.

1. Do not let any health care professionals push you around - do your research and get the treatment that is right for your child.

2. Make sure that your doctor is familiar with the Ponseti method. It's best for them to be Ponseti certified, but if that's not possible, then at least make sure that they know about what it's all about - some people practice the method and just haven't bothered to get certified.

3. Ask probing questions about how often the person treating your child treats clubfoot and what their surgery rates are - if you can avoid needless surgery for your child then you're saving you and them a huge inconvenience as well as the risk that anesthetic for a small child carries.

4. Check out this website - the person who created this site has some amazing information.

Anyway that's my little "tutorial" on clubfoot treatment as well as Lemmie's treatment so far for her clubfoot.

Take care,
El