Clubfoot, or congenital clubfoot (CETV) is a congenital deformity that affects fetal feet. The club of the newly born foot appears to be somewhat rotated, according to the roughness of the deformity. Club foot can affect one foot or both feet—when both feet are affected, this is called bilateral club foot.
I was born with a severe bilateral club foot. My personal case was the worst that the orthopedic experts had seen, so strongly that the option of amputating both feet was debated. However, my parents wanted to give me the opportunity to at least try to enter, and I am grateful that they gave me the chance.
When I read my many guides to foot club ten years ago, they were all directed at parents. These guides are almost all about doctors, insurance, therapy, dealing with children who throw up or stutter. While they provide good advice to the parent who will be treated at the foot of the club, I feel that many of them are missing the most important aspect: the children themselves.
This guide will give parents a look into the mind of a child who has a club foot. When you understand how your child feels, it will help you both understand living with club foot.
We can do more than we think.
During the time of 10 months, I was regularly based on double shots. My orthopedic team told my parents that there is no point in using a walker because they are unlikely to learn to walk at a normal age. But he points out that it is not equal to our natural determination to walk. As soon as I raised the little body, he rejected everything, and was tripping over the house. Not so long ago he was thrashing up and down in my halls, the buffalo making more noise than a little girl with heavy jets. In a few weeks the doctors thought I should be able to walk with a cast, and although I walked a little strangely, I walked (and ran and jumped and jumped) like any normal girl.
It is only natural for parents to feel overprotective of their children at the club. Even smaller club feet are bound to worry about normal development and possible limitations around sports and walks. But believe me—we can do so much more than we think. For any anxiety you have, send us hiking with the Girl Scout team, to banish any nervous thought about sending. let’s try for the baseball team, because every time the doctor bites his teeth and says that we probably won’t ever be able to jump rope… We are stronger than we think, and we want to prove everything that we can do as a normal boy.
But sometimes we can’t do everything
When I was about five years old, I walked up to my parents holding a dance studio certificate from a friend and I said: “I want to go to the ballet.” Any parent of a child with club foot will probably understand their hesitant reaction to my request. Could he do that? Do my feet hurt? What would the doctor say? My parents, I later learned, brought my top orthopedic doctor, and he immediately told them that if I at least tried, they would never know if I could do it. An honest opinion, on my part.
In a few weeks I had signed up for a kiddy ballet class in the studio to get my way. We tend mostly to ask for simple and a few easy dances. It took only one classes for my parents to realize that the ballet was simply too much for my feet. I would literally come home from an hour long, unable to walk for several days. But I persisted: I wanted to be a ballerina and go to class like the other girls. I knew it was bad, but I used to foot pain. Unfortunately, the ballet was more than just a pain-in-combination of our progress with my bilateral club foot. After about ten classes, the ballet instructor called my parents and demanded that I be removed from the classes. They agreed, and I was pulled out. I remember being completely wasted. To this day, sometimes I feel a little twinge of pain that I will never actually be able to dance.
I am an ardent supporter of the belief that club boys can do anything. But there comes a time when even our determination to do what “normal” kids can do is not enough to overcome our physical disabilities. Unfortunately, this will happen someday for your child. They want to do something, but they cannot physically do it. It’s not fair, but it’s the way. I believe it is important to help your child recognize that their limitations are not in any interest. I couldn’t dance ballet but I could still watch or read about it. I would eventually make the softball team and also excel in volleyball. I could do a lot of things, even though I couldn’t take ballet classes. If your child is up against something they can’t do right, give them credit. For example, if your son can’t play baseball, encourage his interest in laughter in other ways—cards, following the team on television, or even encourage interest in sports or hobbies he can play.
We would like to know what is going on.
As a child, I didn’t understand much about my weakness other than “I saw my legs twisty when I was born” and I walked a little funny. Unfortunately, knowledge about club foot is not very widespread, and your child may be used to chattering about a quick explanation to teachers or parents. This is difficult for even the most patient child to understand. It’s not much fun explaining every year that yes, you know you’re lame; you are fine; no, no one has deceived you, etc. I remember being asked a few times by the teachers about the location of my home. /a> your parents thought that the teacher had beaten you with your legs. This is not very pleasant.
That’s why I recommend that you explain to your children the basics of the foot block and their own disability. Let your child know what club foot is and how it will affect them as they get older. I am a huge supporter of being honest about the child condition as much as you can. While growing up, I remember being very confused about exactly how the casts and surgeries would fix my feet. I thought after my surgery I was just like everyone else! No more pain, no limping, and I can (finally) take ballet classes. I didn’t realize that all the shots and braces and therapy and surgery were just to make sure I could walk. It was offensive when I was older and I felt that… this was it. I would always limp, I would always hurt when I walked, and I was fixated on my feet.
Please, parents: Be honest with your children. It’s not to scare them with horror stories about more serious club foot cases, but just let them know that their disability is something to manage for the rest of their lives. Showing examples of successful adults who have club foot is a way of reminding them that they can still be whoever they want to be, regardless of their disability.
If we have to sit down, we mean it!
Depending on the severity of your club foot, try mild severe pain by walking around every day. Many of us never know what it’s like to walk without feeling some sort of pain. For this reason, though, we build a surprisingly high tolerance for everyday foot pain. If you are walking somewhere with your child and you ask him to break because his feet hurt? Take a break! A child with club foot, who already has a higher pain tolerance, means business if they say their feet hurt. This principle should be followed by all adults to supervise a child with a club foot. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been belittled by parent chaperones on field trips who let my kids go to complain about tired children. On the other hand, when the chaperones were told about the foot club, they took my request to interrupt more seriously because they understood that it meant that my pain was terminal.
Conclusion
I hope that, as a parent of a club-footed child, you will gain knowledge about your eye conditions from my experience. While club foot slows us down in some areas, we can do almost anything—as long as we have a great home system behind us!
