casting adolescent

[Guest guest]

I am starting to wonder if I can cast my son when he is a teenager.

I know this may sound strange and like an automatic no.

But, if he goes through a period of bracing in childhood could we then go back

to casting until he has very nearly finished growing?

Anyone find anything on this ever or know anything about it?

I brought him into this world in the most gentle and natural way I could think

of, at home, in a pool of warm water, and I want to make sure that as long as he

remains a child and therefore my responsibility that I keep with this that I

started from when I first conceived him and keep it all as natural and gentle as

I can, even given that he has severe scoliosis.

I know that he is going to have a say in all this, and we have already started

to have some conversations about how he is feeling and what he thinks, but if I

have information I can bring to the table later it would help with these

conversations.

I want him to grow up and manage to be surgery free. I am hoping that he will

take up moderate body building as a way to feel good and stay healthy with his

curve. If he changes his mind. he can always get the surgery later.

But there is something serious going on with him. I wonder if he has torn a

ligament in his spine, or multiple ligaments. I hope to have this investigated.

Or, if he has a problem with one of the growth plates in his spine, or if the

scoliosis is causing a problem.

Which leads me to the thinking that for the second growth spurt of adolescence,

could casting be the best treatment perhaps for my son?

I know it's been done before, but I don't know much about it. I read something

once written by a person on one of other groups who had casting in adolescence

but his infantile scoliosis ended up being much worse than my son's, though

perhaps started out as bad as his. I don't want to go with the details of what

I read in the thread on that group, but I am looking to replace it with other

information. The person who had written about his experience had in fact LIKED

the casting as a teenager and thought it was a good choice, so I will take that

from it. But the rest I am hoping to replace with other information I can

perhaps bring to the attention of doctors and other interested persons. Perhaps

other parents would like to know too.

I am certain that unless something changes in a big way that bracing for my son

as a teenager will be as bad as bracing for him as a baby, and therefore that

leaves rods or -- casting??

I don't want rods because of the whole philosophy of natural and gentle I wanted

to bring into his life and I still stand by it. So how about the casting.

Any thoughts?

Shauna Leamy

mother of Kelsey, Kieran (Age 3, 85* COBB, 90* Rotation, 110* RVAD,) and