To ask for your experience/advice for looking after a child in a spica cast?

[AngeloMysterioso]

My poor little DS2 has broken his leg 😭 he had his new cast on today and it’s likely to be on for four weeks, possibly five. He’s only 3… how on earth do I keep him entertained when he can’t move? He’s usually a tiny tornado in human form and I’m worried he’s going to be bored out of his mind, especially when the weather is so beautiful and he has two brothers who will be able to run around and play outside.

Anybody?

My now 5 year old broke his thigh when he was 4. We had a spica cast for 8 weeks.

it is hard.

make sure you have a big buggy that he will fit into. The hospital gave us one. I had a baby at the time so that was tricky. I needed someone else to take them out but we went out every day.

find somewhere with disabled access and use it for the mornings. get loads of games to play. Lots of tv time. iPad games like fast phonics etc.

what you will find, much to your surprise, is that your child will move around in the cast. By the end of the fourth week my child was going up the stairs in the cast by dragging himself with his arms. He moved all around the house and could access anything that was on the floor. so magnets, duplo, cars, trains, etc he could access. I could also sit him in his commode at the table for painting, play dough, baking and eating.

I got a massive bean bag for him to rest on and he stayed there the first week until the pain subsided and after that he scooched around like a crab on the floor.

We could put him into his car seat and so we took him to science museums with his big buggy. We lifted him so he could do the activities.

it is scary but I don’t regret the cast decision. Much better than being stuck in hospital.

message me if you have questions.

Thank you - the occupational therapist at the hospital is going to look at our car seats and pram tomorrow to check if they’re suitable, but far from offering to lend us anything we’ve been told if the car seats won’t work the hospital will arrange his transport home and if we want to take him in out the car after that we’ll have to buy a new car seat. He’s also had to go back in nappies ☹️

Don’t worry about the nappies right now. We had to do that too. He didn’t untrained himself. And I had him out of a nappy for most of the time anyway because you can use a whizzer for wees. Just put a nappy on for poos, going out and about and at night. I would request a commode. It was super useful for using as a dining room chair. He didn’t use it as a loo though.

they don’t sound like they are being helpful with the car seat and buggy etc. Our car seat worked fine. Ask them if they will prove hospital transport for every outpatient appointment? They might change their mind about not having a car seat that you can borrow.

We needed a buggy because he was 4 and quite big so they lent us one. The best buggy is a little umbrella buggy. Like a joie or a Maclaren because the seat sticks out which supports the cast. the buggy they gave us looked like a nipper 360 but bigger. It’s was great. They offered a wheelchair and I turned it down and took the buggy. He would’ve fitted into the joie though as well but I hadn’t realised when we were in the hospital.

we got hospital transport home because we needed to bring the stuff with us. We waited ages for the o.t. And the physio to sort out what we needed. Hopefully they will be rushing you guys out. It’s super stressful but you will get through it.

the worst thing with the cast is when it itches. I got a scratching stick from Amazon made of plastic and long. That was a godsend.

you will also needs lots of pillows to prop his leg at night. I put him in my bed next to me with a rail because of needing to turn him in the night and to make sure he didn’t roll onto his face. You can’t really leave them unsupervised in the cast- it’s not safe because they can’t turn easily.

make sure they give you rolls of silk tape for the edges of the cast. You can get it on Amazon but they should give you enough.

I would be assertive about the equipment you need. They can provide these things. You’ll begin to feel better as soon as you are all home.

My little boy had one when he was two - his was from waist to ankle on the broken leg (femar snap!) and to the knee on the other side with a gap for toileting!

He had been in traction for about 10 days before he got the spica cast on, so for the first few days he was just glad to be home and watched films propped up with pillows!

we bought some joggers in a few sizes up, cut them up the sides and sewed Velcro up them. Once he had these on, he got a bit of a slide action going on our wooden floors and he started army crawling around our house! He could lie on his tummy and play Lego and little imaginary games with his figures and cars!

The hospital did give us a specialist car seat, and we had a double buggy we could sit him in to get him out a few times. But to be honest, it was stressful taking him out : he didn’t look comfy, shifting him from car seat to buggy was hard, finding somewhere to change him with hard and I was terrified someone was going to bump his cast! We did two quiet museums I think and a few walks round the park was all we managed.

We arranged a lot of visitors to drop in to break up the days, had family discos where he was the DJ, arts and crafts while lying on his tummy. We liked the brio app, CBeebies app and Lego games section from their website.

You’ll have a few out patient appointments too - I’d be really surprised if they didn’t sort you a car seat, you need to go back and forth from the hospital quite a few times with them. They are quite strict on not recycling the special car seats - we tried to give the one they gave us back to the hospital, but they refused. We ended up having to throw ours in the skip.

we have three young kids, so we were terrified on of his brothers was going to jump on his bad leg! I had to call in some favours so I always had an extra pair of hands, or bring the siblings to the loo with me etc on the odd occasion I was alone with them all! Me and my husband took turns taking the siblings on special 1-1 days out, and our son in the cast spent some time booking tickets etc for special days out once he was feeling better.

it the end, our son got his cast off a couple of days early and started walking again the next day! We made him take it easy for a few weeks but you’d never have known it had happened by the 12 week mark. Kids are so bloody resilient - the team at the hospital told us they had seen loads of kids learn to do a crab walk while in cast!

Have a think about yourself too - it’s really hard work physically. I was exhausted by the end - if you are working, you might need a good bit of time off. It wasn’t the type of childcare I felt I could ask the kid’s grandparents to help with. We weren’t in nursery at the time so I don’t know if they have procedures etc in place?

For the car seat you used to be able to rent one from Maxi Cosi, an adapted one which has space for the cast. Not sure if they still do this (it's called Happy Hips - I assume the broken leg Spica cast is the same as the Hip Spica one?)

If you don't want to do that you could try Britax Advansafix/Evolvafix, it's nice and wide so should work but still has the 5 point harness and then converts to high back booster. Or you could temporarily put him into a high back booster, then back to the harnessed seat once he is out of the cast and keep the HBB for later.

My son was in spica cast for 6 weeks. We used a white goods skate board for him to lay on and pull himself around. By the end of the 6 weeks he was playing football with his brother on it. We also used a bean bag for him to lie on. He played with cars, lego, play doh while lying on his front. Also managed painting. We couldn't use a car seat but we had a big buggy. We used to take him out for a walk every evening, and at weekends would take him to town for a hot chocolate and cake or walk to a local garden centre. Its hard at the beginning but gets so much better after about 10 days.

It is scary and overwhelming. My DD had her second hip operation at the age of 2. She hated the spica for few days but then she accepted it. She was amazing. We bought the Britax car seat as the hospital didn’t have any and used our joei pram just propped her on a small cushion at the back. Also we sat her at the low coffee table on her small chair wedged between the table and sofa and she played with all sorts of stuff. After couple of weeks she started crawling and then walking in her spica. I agree with PP the itching was the worst but only at night. It won’t be easy but you’ll get through it. She still went to the nursery, they were amazing with her. You can get spica trousers on the Next website with buttons on the side. She still used the toilet as normal I just put a nappy for the night. Try to get out of the house every day, it helps the time go faster. You’ve got it mumma!