Kids in leg calipers, circa 1966-67

[Miljah]

Do you remember this? It came to me as a memory last night. I started school in '66 and I recall a couple of kids in leather strap and steel rod calipers, attached to a brown leather boot.

I guess they'd had polio?

And as an aside, do anti-vaxxers not allow the polio vaccine?

My uncle had perthes too, and I think he had a leg brace in some photos.

I know he was in hospital for a year with it.

I think he was little- about 6.

As well as polio and hip problems I think calipers were used to help correct club feet

There used to be large collection boxes that sat outside shops for a charity, which featured a model of a child ( boy, as I remember) with callipers.

Yes, I came on to mention this. I don't remember anyone IRL with callipers but did know quite a few people who'd had polio.

My Aunty did, for club foot. She remembers going to school and being amazed that none of the other children had them.

There was a girl at my Primary in the 1970s who wore calipers because of polio.

I started school in 71 and there was a little boy in my year who had them on both legs. They were usually referred to as "leg irons" in those days. I think he had CP. He walked with a walking frame but was learning to walk with crutches and had to practise using them every day at playtime - his mum came from home to help with this. I think of him occasionally and wonder why you don't see the exact equivalent sort of aids any more, and what a modern version of him would be using - AFOs possibly?

I'm in the US, and I remember lining up at the high school gym in 1961 for the brand new Sabin vaccine on a sugar cube. Over the course of a few days the entire town of approx 15k was vaccinated.

Seeing people with leg braces or in wheelchairs because of polio wasn't all that uncommon when I was a child. I also remember visiting a young girl in an iron lung as a young child of around 7-9. She wasn't that much older than me, probably 10-12 yrs old I don't remember who it was, her parents were connected with our church in some way.

Thank God for modern medicine and vaccines!

They still use calipers if AFOs aren't strong enough, I've got some!

I went to school in 1976 with calipers i dont have polio anyway leg operations and a few months with a frame and i walked unaided. Kids these days have plastic or siliclone splits they are not as clunky

My grandfather had polio.

He wore leg irons from the age of 7 until the day he died in the early1980s. In my very early childhood he walked with crutches, whereas i mostly remember him in a wheelchair.

I think he was in pain a lot of the time. Certainly he broke one of his leg in the mid-late 1970s on the way to visit us, and didn't notice because the pain was no worse than usual. He only really took it seriously when his leg irons wouldn't fit on because of the swelling.

I remember the collecting boxes in my childhood (late 60s / 1970s).

I remember seeing loads of children in calipers when I was a child. A lot of them were because they had had polio. I was born in 1958.

There were a couple of children at my primary school with callipers. I wanted them sooo much.

I now have no idea why!

There used to be large collection boxes that sat outside shops for a charity, which featured a model of a child ( boy, as I remember) with callipers. I don’t remember children IRL in them, but I do remember the occasional adult in them and those in very built up shoes

This charity was called the society for the crippled child ,or the Spastic society I can't quite remember but bloody hell eh

The charity formerly known as the Spastic Society worked for people with Cerebral Palsy, and later for disabled people in general. The name wouldn’t meet modern standards of person-first language, but afaik it wasn’t seen as problematic until the usual disablist twats started to use it as a term of abuse. The name change to Scope was chosen after considerable thought about how to pick something that couldn’t be used abusively. Anyone who’s heard “Special” being used by adults who should know better knows that you’re only ever half a step ahead of those bastards.

Ds had club feet in 2008 and the method was amazing, can't imagine managing for 3 years with old fashioned ways.

Yes I know who they are I was commenting on the words that were used im heading for 50 i have been called them all.

Sorry MrsJayy I misunderstood - I thought you were retrospectively shocked that it was ever called that - but of course it wasn’t a particularly bad name at the time (though they clung onto it longer than they should).

My uncle had them, he had polio and was another one that spent a considerable time in an iron lung.

I wish the anti vaxxers could read this thread.

Aren’t calibers just the old AFOs/splints?

The Spastic Society is now Scope. DS1 spends a lot of his pocket money on cds from them. Their remit now also includes his disability.

My nana once chased off a bloke with her handbag that was collecting for the spastics society.........she was outraged at the word being used (( must have been mid 90s ))

I found out after she died that she'd had a little boy who was born with disabilities and later died aged 4. They were seen as being very odd for keeping him and actually lost friends over it. (( mid 40s )) back then it was common for disabled children to be sent away.

Were calipers not also used for kids with hip problems (clicky hips)?

I remember a child in the early 80s who wore a brace thing that held their knees apart but they still walked in it (john wayne style).