Clubfoot

Our Ava was born with a unilateral, isolated clubfoot (meaning, it's just one foot, and nothing else is wrong that could be related).  We found out while at our first Ultrasound at 8 weeks pregnant. My

Husband was born with a clubfoot as well but unfortunately we don't know a lot of the details as my mother-in-law does not remember much about it. Steve has always been great at sports and you can't even tell he had a clubfoot, so that makes me feel a little better.

Clubfoot, also called congenital talipes equinovarus (CTEV), is one of the most common, non-life threatening, major birth defects among infants globally. Approximately one in every 1,000 newborns has clubfoot. Of those, one in three have both feet clubbed. The exact cause is unknown. Two out of three clubfoot babies are boys. Clubfoot is twice as likely to occur if one or both parents and/or a sibling has had it. Clubfoot is something completely treatable and worlds away from some of the things other little babies have to endure. We are lucky that her foot is treatable and that she's such an easy-going baby anyway.

So to those of you wondering about the whole Clubfoot process, it's a non-surgical treatment procedure known as the Ponseti method.

A specific method of:

-manipulation to stretch contracted ligaments:
This 6-8 week long process casts the foot gradually into the correct position from side to side (opposite of the way it curves). During treatment each week, the cast is removed and replaced with a new cast that incrementally moves the foot into the correct position.



-tenotomy:
When the foot is corrected from side to side and is straight, Ava will need a Tenotomy so that it is then corrected to moving up & down. A Tenotomy is a small procedure done in the clinic where a surgeon makes a small cut in the back of her ankle to lengthen the heel cord. There is a numbing cream applied and a freezing agent injected into the area and that's it. It's quick and easy process all while Ava is awake. It's not too painful during the healing process and we can give Ava some baby Tylenol IF there is any discomfort-- which there shouldn't be. Apparently the treatment is pretty painless for babies - perhaps just a little frustrating. Most say it's worse for the parents.
Then she will be in a cast for another 3 weeks while she heals.


-bracing:
Once she's done with the casting, the foot is technically "fixed," but it can move back So she will have these little plastic boots she will wear that are connected to each other by a metal bar (keeping her feet about shoulder-width apart, feet at a certain angle). She will wear this contraption for 23 hours a day, for 3 straight months. After that, she will wear the bar only while sleeping, for the next few years of her life, until she's about four. The boots and bar act like a retainer might for your teeth after braces.