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Sarah - posted on 04/03/2009

Well Danielle, I have to say you are luck to know before hand!! I had know idea before my daughter was born, she has had lots of doctors app. lots of castings andhas jsut had a surgery she has very severe Club Feet she is a 6 on both sides which is as bad as it gets, she jsut had her tendon lengthing yesterday, I wish you all the luck and if you have ANY questions let me know

Sommer - posted on 03/28/2009

Hi Danielle.

I was in your very same situation just a few months ago.  My little boy was born 5 weeks early on Feb. 25th with clubfeet.  I knew about the feet from a previous ultrasound and found the online websites to be terrifying - I spent the last two weeks of my pregnancy crying whenever I would picture my baby with feet facing each other.  But, let me try to ease your mind...it's not a big deal. I actually thought his little feet were adorable when he came out!  It's much more common than you would imagine. - something like 1 in every 1,000 boys.

Find a doctor trained in the Ponsetti Method (no surgery, just casts on the legs to correct the feet, followed by special shoes).  Think of it like having braces on the teeth and then a retainer for a few years to keep the shape.  We have been going to the Pediatric Orthopedist since my son was 5 days old.  He's already in his 4th set of casts and he gets the heel cord nick next week.  His feet already look straight when they take the casts off.  The Ponsetti Methond is exactly what Seonead described in her reply. This method has been in practice for over 50 years and RARELY resluts in any surgeries.

The little casts just make diaper changes rather challenging!  lol

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy - let me know how it goes!

I'm happy to answer questions.

Seonead - posted on 03/26/2009

the website i gave goes into full depth about the technique

Seonead - posted on 03/26/2009

my son was diagnosed with clubbed feet at 5 months in to my pregnancy. the dr i chose for my son is one of the best in my state. the information that he gave me said that there really is no rhyme or reason as to why this occurs. it is possible for it to be genetic. we had no occurrances of this on either sides of the family. also it happens more to boys than girls, again no reason as to why. and it can be fully corrected. my dr uses the ponseti method and we have had great results. he was casted at 1 week old, every week for 5 weeks. at the 5th week he had a heel cord nick to lengthen the achilles tendon and then was casted for 3 more weeks. after that he was in the special shoes with a bar between them for 6 weeks 24hrs a day, after that he wears only the shoes and bar only at night time until he is five. so far so good wth everything. within the first casting he feet looked amazing. if you want look up the ponseti technique. here a one web site. http://www.hss.org/conditions_14541.asp my sons dr has been using this technique for many years and has had success with it