Talipes – Our story
Our daughter Libbi is 3 and half years old and she has talipes. The journey we have been on with Libbi over the past three years has been both brilliant and a challenge.
Libbi started her ponseti treatment when she was 8 days old and had the casts changed every week for 8 weeks, every week we could see the improvement in the position of her feet.
She had a tenotomy at 10 weeks and started her boots and bars 3 weeks later.
When Libbi was two and half she started to react to the boots and bars, getting red sore feet, regularly getting blisters and tended to be uncomfortable and not sleeping. This obviously had an impact on us as a family as we were all awake at night regularly and having early starts to get up for work. Tiredness mixed with anxiety was upsetting.
We travelled to Manchester Children’s hospital and they carried out a thorough assessment to identify the cause of the pain and blisters, after we had tried every type of plaster, sock and cream. Libbi was refitted with boots and bars and soon became our happy daughter again. Libbi is now at pre-school 3 days every week, she is active like the other children and benefits from all the school activities. She enjoys life like any 3 year old.
What can I say to Parents going through ponseti?
-Keep going and don’t be tempted to alter or remove the boots and bars, this has a negative impact.
-Always ask for help or information if you are concerned, ring Steps OR the hospital team treating your baby.
-Ask the pharmacist for cream for their feet.
-Try socks, cotton socks worked well for Libbi under her boots.
If you would like to ask Libbi’s mum any questions emai linfo@steps-charity.org.uk