Braces: Then and Now

Lexi has been working very hard, over the past few years, to get her gait corrected.  Due to what we thought was continued tightness in her legs, she is still walking on her toes almost all the time.  We have done Physical Therapy, yoga, regular chiropractic adjustments, swimming and dance, along with regular stretching at home, but we were not seeing any improvement.  Finally our neurologist sent us to a orthopedist who suggested that the biggest reason that she is walking on her toes is because she's been walking on her toes for seven years, and it's just become habit.  He feels as though wearing braces will have the combined effect of helping to break her of the toe walking habit and get her stretched out a bit.  She is supposed to wear them at night, and as often as she can throughout the day.

It's not easy to wear braces on your legs in second grade, but she has been handling it very well.  She's had a few days where she has worn them throughout the entire school day.  We have agreed that she can take them off for recess and gym, but sometimes she just keeps them on.  She also wears them almost every night to bed.  We've only had them for a few weeks, but we are hoping to see some improvement soon.  Allowing her to continue toe walking can cause all sorts of additional problems such a tight achilles and also Scoliosis.

Lexi is a trooper and really deals with all of this very well.  I feel very lucky to have such a great kid, who is willing to do the work to get herself to where she needs to be.

New braces next to the old braces she wore when she was three.  What a funny difference!!

Showing off her braces.  She does not normally like anyone to see them, but she allowed me to take this picture and said it was ok to put it on the blog.