The One with the 34 Month Old Who Doesn't Wear Ankle Braces Anymore

For the past year Addison has been wearing ankle braces in order to help her not walk on her ankles and straighten out her feet. At first she wanted nothing to do with them. It was a battle every day to get them on her feet. She would scream and cry and kick. But over time she got used to it being part of her routine. Every morning we put them on her and she would wear them all day with the exception of nap time. When going into fall and winter, she was wearing tennis shoes anyway so the struggle to get them on her feet wasn't bad. But as summer came back around, we had to fight her to get them back on her feet. She wanted to wear sandals. But by this point she had to wear them for about half of the day but it was a struggle again. She had to wear tall socks then plastic braces then tennis shoes. Her feet just got hot and she wanted nothing to do with them when she was outside playing in the summer. Honestly I couldn't blame her in the slightest.

But we started noticing that when she wore them she was turning her feet in. Basically what used to be call pigeoned-toed but now called toed-in was happening to her feet. It became a mystery; something that Infant Toddler Services had never seen happen before. When she was barefoot her foot was barely turned in compared to when she was wearing the braces and shoes. We also noticed that when we took her to outside and to the park, she was struggling to step up when the ground wasn't level but we didn't know the cause of that either. 

A few weeks ago we went back to the neurologist for a follow-up appointment. We went over
everything that had been happening including the outside problem we noticed. It was something I was nervous to ask because when they found the spots in her brain they were in the part of her brain that deals with vision. I was afraid they would want another MRI but I also knew I couldn't leave it out. After talking about it, we discussed that every time I noticed her having problems she was wearing the braces and shoes. He suspected that because she had so much on her feet at once she was struggling to figure out where her feet where in comparison to everything else. Kids learn so much through the bottom of their feet and by having a sock then a plastic brace then a shoe on her foot she couldn't feel anything. We concluded that the braces had become counter-productive for her at this point. 

But we weren't going to say she was completely done until we talked to her physical therapist about what she thought. It was a week later that we met with her for her PT. We talked about what the neurologist said and what I had noticed and what was happening. She concluded the same. So we decided that at this point we would stop using the braces. We would let her be barefoot as much as possible because that's when she moved the best then just stick with sandals while it was hot and when she did wear shoes she wouldn't have to wear braces. 

Honestly I was excited. I have been ready to be done with the braces for a long time now. Not having to have her wear them is just one more way that she was moving forward and getting back on track. She had truly been a trooper for the last year. She hasn't liked the braces but she has dealt with them every day. She is a little fighter and just keeps progressing forward. I am so proud of her and how far she has come.

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xo, B