Excellent Article, and an Update

Excellent article about clubfoot treatment on NPR today!

The casting technique was developed by Dr. Ignacio Ponseti at the University of Iowa in the 1950s. The Spanish physician discovered that if an infant's feet were slowly turned out over the first few months of life, the foot could be coaxed into a normal position.

Unlike the traditional surgical method, the Ponseti method is pretty much painless, and patients who receive it usually have a complete recovery, with no long-term discomfort. It also costs less. Ponseti spent the next 50 years tirelessly trying to get other doctors to accept it, but with little success.

Read or listen to the story here.

The blog has been quiet because I don't have too much to report. No news is good news, right? :) The brace is just part of our routine now. It has gotten easier to buckle it. At first I was afraid I'd never get the hang of it, but it gets easier each time. I can get it buckled pretty fast now.

I usually take it off an hour before bedtime, and make it our bedtime routine put the boots back on, swaddle him (with the upper part of the swaddle blanket only), put him in the sleep sack, and nurse him to sleep. The brace doesn't seem to bother him at all.

One evening, during his free hour, he was rather fussy. Once I put the brace back on, he calmed down and seemed happier. That makes me a little apprehensive for when we go down to only nighttime wear, but I'm sure he'll adjust to that when the time comes.

We haven't had our one-month bracing follow-up visit yet. My husband unexpectedly switched jobs in mid-January, and his insurance coverage ended effective his last day of work. His new coverage doesn't start for a few more months, so we've switched to my work insurance, but that isn't effective until February 1. We had to reschedule his visit for February 20th.

The Beco Gemini is working very well for babywearing with the brace. We went on a two-mile hike this weekend and Peter seemed to enjoy it!