Anyone Else Have a Baby Born with Clubfeet?

my son was born with a clubfoot on the right. if there's a shriner's hospital near you, I highly recommend you get treatment there. they are experts and will treat your child free of charge until the age of 18. depending on the severity, they can extend that to age 21. We had Kaiser for insurance and started the casting process with them, then Shriner's opened up in Sacramento and we went there for an assessment. Kaiser had been casting him improperly (cast should go above the knee) and we had to start all over. I'm not sure how much different the casting will be with both feet, but we went once a week for cast changes. Shriner's was awesome. I got to bathe him in a large sink between old cast off and new one on. he loved his weekly bath and the casting guys never rushed us. he has had two surgeries. one to drop his heel, one to correct the direction his toes pointed. We stayed overnight at shriners both times. his right foot is smaller than the left, and when he was younger we would buy two pairs of shoes in different sizes to make one pair that fit properly. if you go to Nordstroms, they will sell you two different sized shoes as a pair, so that saved us quite a bit of money! hopefully your childs feet will be the same size. My son can keep up pretty well with his peers, he cant run as fast and his right calf muscle is not as developed as the left. but that has never slowed him down. he is an avid hiker. Did you know that Daman Wayans, Kristi Yamaguchi and Mia Hamm all were born with clubfeet? if you have questions, just pm me!

My nephew was born with bi-lateral clubfeet and spinal bifida last year. They told my niece he would be paralyzed from the waist down, and would have no control over the bowels. blah blah blah. Long story short. He is NOT paralyzed. He had soft casts and he had surgery a couple of months ago. He just got the casts off and the pins out. They look pretty darn straight. He will need to be in braces for a little while but he is doing wonderful. He is trying to walk!!!! His spinal bifida was very mild and has had not issues with that. FYI he is the cutest bundle of love!!

I'll be 50 next week and was born with bilateral club feet. I did not have surgery but my mom said I came home with casts on both legs. I've done absolutely fine!

No, I do not have children with this condition.

But I wanted to share a story with you. I spent a long weekend in Palm Springs at the original Palm Springs Spa, where one goes to 'take the waters.'

I enrolled in a water aerobics class while there and it was absolutely the most amazing water aerobics class I have ever in my life taken. It was taught by a very handsome man who was born with club feet and was told he would never walk. But he proved them all wrong. He used water as his primary source of exercise and went on to develop this amazing walking technique in the water, which I still use to this day. His technique has proven to be a fabulous healing tool for me, as I was hit by a car about 5 years ago and sustained a lot of injuries. His approach to water therapy has restored my physical life. That and yoga.

I send you lots of strength and patience to deal with this physical condition. I'm sure there are wonderful doctors and caring staff to help you and your family navigate through the future options.

Wishing you the best and sending you prayers and hugs.

My high-school boyfriend (the great love of my life at ages 15 and 16, LOL) was born with clubfeet. He never mentioned having had surgery, but he had casts and orthopedic shoes until grade school. His "complication" was that he was teased a lot growing up since he couldn't run as fast as the other boys. But that was in the "bad old days" (70s and 80s) when schools were indifferent to bullying. I imagine both the social and medical realities are different now.

My nephew was just born with clubfeet. He will be one month old tomorrow. My brother & SIL were also told about it during a sonogram so they were mentally prepared for it when he was born. The doctor who saw him in the hospital classified him as having "severe" clubfeet and advised them to find a pediatric orthopedist and make an appt before they even left the hospital. He has already made so much progress! He got his first set of casts on when he was a week old. He goes back every week to have the old casts taken off and new ones put on. They go from his toes to his thighs. That sometimes makes diaper changes a little difficult, but they are getting used to it. Baths are tough because the casts cannot get wet AT ALL. They will continue to do weekly casting for a few months, until the doctor decides that he has made enough progress to stop and do surgery. I believe the surgery is to cut the tendon in the leg. Then he will have braces (for a few years I think). Our other brother had braces on his legs because he was bow legged and he learned how to walk with the braces on. If you start the whole process while your baby is a newborn, (s)he won't know any better - it will just be a way of life for them. It will be hard for you (emotionally) to witness everything, and it will be tough to be back & forth to doctors constantly. Maybe you could start looking for a good doctor while you are still pregnant, hopefully you can find someone local.
My SIL recently told me that she wants people to celebrate their son's birth, not pity him... hope you can have the same attitude! Best of luck to you and congratulations on your impending birth! God Bless!

I loosely follow the blog of this mama, whose son was born w/ several complications including clubfeet: http://masonsbjournal.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=201...
I've found it interesting and informative-and she's stated that she writes it for mama's just like you.

I also have a friend whose DD had one clubfoot. She had casts for a while but she is doing fabulous now (almost 3).

Best wishes to you and your family.

My uncle was born with clubfeet. My grandmother was told he would never walk. Of course that was many years ago, and medicine has advanced considerably since then. He proved them wrong even back then (he's 55 or so now). After several surgeries, he was walking by the time he was 7, and ended up boxing with the Golden Gloves.

With today's medical technology, I would expect that your baby would have a much better prognosis than my uncle.

U have to remember that doctors are obliged to give every senario about your baby based on their findings for the sole purpose that u will not fault them later once the baby is born. There purpose is not to keep u calm but to protect themselves and they would rather u terminate your pregnancy than they get blamed for the 1 in 100,000 that will get some genetic disorder. It is a trying time for u sweet mother but u need faith in the one who created that baby to be special irreplacable person in your life. Club feet is nothing to worry about the famous olympian Kristy Yamaguchi had club feet and u would never know. As far as the genetic testing i know of countless women who were told their babies had a chance of this or that and they were almost always wrong. Heck if any of us were tested for these things who knows how many likely senarios they would find. We can't live by the what ifs but by the what is. And what is right now is you and your baby a wonderful beginning.

My best friends son did. He had casts on for several months and now 35
years later has straight legs/feet. Congratulations. By the way, the casts
never bothered him because he just never knew life without them. Think he
had them off by the time he was four months give or take a month.

My niece had this. She wore leg braces for a year or so I think, may have had a surgery... but she's fine now.