Relapse and length of time in bar for older children increasing

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

In my latest visit with Dr. Ponseti in San Francisco he told me he is

officially increasing the amount of time in the bar to at least four years

of age and maybe even five years old depending on the child. My son is now 3

1/2 and I think he started to have a relapse right around three. He was

going through a growth spurt and one day I looked at his feet and they were

looking very clubbed. I was so scared! I thought for sure he was having a

relapse. I immediately started monitoring him, putting him to bed early with

the bar on earlier and sent video and photos to Dr. Ponseti. He too said to

increase the bar and adjust the shoes out a little. We did all of the above

and now 6 months later his feet look beautiful as Dr. Ponseti said!! We are

not even going to think about taking the bar off till after 4 1/2, Dr.

Ponseti agrees. This is when he told me his is going to increase the length

of time in the bar because he has had a few relapses in children around 3

and 3 1/2 years of age. This really bothers him, so you will see more and

more information about lengthening the time in the bar. I think he also

wants to please parents and there are many parents that don't want to keep

putting the bar on their children. It may deter some people from the Ponseti

method because the length of time in the bar is longer than before. However

increasing the bar may get rid of the small percentage of relapses

completely. We all know we aren't out of the water for relapses until age 5

so why not keep them in the bar until then. This is what keeps our babies

out of surgery, maintaining the corrected position!

Good Luck,

Charity and Trenton (8-24-00)

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