I saw a new ‘weird’ baby thing tonight. I’m wondering what it is. I know this could be in GQ but I’m sure people will want to give their opinion as to what it could be.
Anyway, I standing in a subway station and this couple walks past me. The woman has the baby in one of those things that holds the kid in front of her like a backpack only it is a frontpack.
Now the weird thing was the baby’s shoes. The shoes had these large fasterners on the bottom and they held a little ‘baby snowboard’ to the kid. The snowboard kept the kids legs spread wide apart so the kid looked really bow legged.
What was that?
I had to wear one from birth until two years old at night. I can still remember the tearful fights towards the end with my mother. I still remember it hurt something aweful. I think it’s a crewl way to fix a kids bone structure in this day and age.
They hardly ever use them anymore. For most intoeing and other alignment problems where once these were prescribed, doctors now take a wait-and-see approach until 6 or 7 years old. By this point, over 90% of the conditions have resolved themselves with no treatment. (Cite in another thread I posted in a while back, can’t remember what search terms I used to find it now.)
Either the kid’s case was really severe, or his doctor is 103 years old…
I had one of those (born in '69). My parents had crap insurance and couldn’t afford to buy one, so the doctor gave my dad plans to build me one. I still have it, it looks just like a tiny snowboard covered with flowered contact paper, with baby shoes nailed to it. The toes of the shoes are cut off for ventilation.
I had something similar, too. My right foot pointed out; the other was straight. Today, both my feet are appropriately parallel. My right knee, OTOH, points inward.
Wow. I didn’t know there were so many people like me. I don’t exactly remember wearing one of these but know they tried several things to correct my inturned feet. I forget the name of the problem but it had to do with the tibias were growing faster than the fibulas, or vice-versa. At the age of six, I had surgery where the doctors broke the longer bones and removed enough to make them even with the shorter ones. My feet are still just a tad pigeon-toed but at least I don’t trip over them all the time like I used to.
I wore one too for years. It was because I toed in. I also spent several years in leg braces that strapped around my legs all the way down from my waist.
My brother and I both wore corrective shoes when we were small. His shoes were identical (no right or left) with a hole in the bottom for the rod. Our family has a genetic thing where one leg is bent or something, and our ankles collapsed inward.
It made buying shoes easier since there was a limited selection of corrective shoes to choose from.
We had a classmate who wore braces where there was something around her waist and then braces down the outside of her legs, that looked like metal encased in black plastic. Then they attached to her shoes/feet. I never knew what they were for but she wore them for years in elementary school.
Ditto, down to the birth year. I don’t remember wearing them directly, but do remember finding them when I was about 10 and asking my mom what they were. Knowing my mom, she probably still has the whole setup in a closet somewhere in her house.
gigi, I wore those same kind of braces as a kid. It’s to correct pigeon-toed feet. By the time I got them (about age 11), my bones had already grown too much to completely correct them, but they were able to get my feet to point straight ahead instead of inwards. I had to wear the braces every day, all day, for a year. I hated them but they did help.
Born 2 months early in 73. My right hip socket didn’t form all the way, specifically the “cup” part is too shallow. I was in a brace from birth until age 2 that basically caused my knees to touch my chest and caused me to be pigeontoed. My doctor recommended switching my shoes to straighten my feet. Now, the only time you see me pigeontoed is when I’m extremely tired. I still walk with a limp due to the hip, which is exaggerated when I’m tired. The docs have said that my muscles keep my hip in and have said I’ll eventually need a replacement. The left hip sometimes gives me problems, but the right one is worse.
Considering I was only 3lb, 11oz and the drs didn’t think I had a prayer, I think it’s a good tradeoff.
