Curly Feet

That is what lots of people called clubbed feet. And they are, all curled up, just like the baby was inside mom. Except, those little feet shouldn't be all curled up once baby is born, so our job is to fix them. And it is one of the most gratifying things we do!

We just started correcting the feet of little Min, who arrived last week. We'll apply a series of casts to gradually stretch the feet into the correct position. He'll need a very minor (out patient) surgery to nip the Achilles tendon when we are almost done, and then once he heals from that he'll get a special pair of corrective shoes that are attached to a brace that will help hold the position as he grows. Once he's 3 or 4 years old he won't even need that any more (till that time he'll need to wear his brace while sleeping) and then he'll be just like all the other kids!


So this little fellow got his first set of casts on Thursday. Here are his little feet before we started. His got the maximum score for the club foot deformity, so this is not a mild case:

He didn't seem to mind the casting at all (in fact, he only cried when we had to change his diaper in the middle of the process) and actually fell asleep as we were finishing. That is the beauty of the Ponseti method of club foot correction - it's non invasive, does not involve painful surgery or upset the baby's routines at all. And it works! We have been using the Ponseti method on all of our club foot babies for 6 years now and have seen some amazing transformations. Here is Min just as we were finishing, waiting for his plaster casts to dry:

Doesn't he look peaceful? We'll post more updates as we change his casts so you can see the progress too.