Late walking, hypermobility and Piedro boots

[minko]

DS turned 2 a couple of weeks ago and has only just started walking. He was seen today by a physio and she has given him some Piedro boots which I have to say seem to work wonders. He's walking much better, his legs are closer together when he walks and he's already much more confident.

I'm just wondering how long he is likely to have to wear them. Are we talking months or years? The physio was quite vague, she is coming back in 2 weeks to see how he is getting on and has referred him to get new boots fitted (he has some old 2nd hand ones at the moment). It is looking quite long term to me...

It often is quite long term, how long depends on the problem! I can't see my DS ever getting out of them at the moment! If you need new ones ask to see the catalogue as there are some really nice styles, we have 'camel' coloured suede with 2 velcro straps and I'm always being asked where they came from.

I guess you have to "Take each day as it comes".Your dc may suprise you!I guess it aso depends on underlying condition and the severity of hypermobility.

DD has SN and could not even crawl at 2,but in last 9 months since having physio has progressed enormously and can now walk with a Kaye frame and has AFOS splints that come in pretty designs.She still has a wide gait and without her splints will roll over on her ankles (pronate?)IIRC from what I have read they can prvide Piedros in all sorts of funky colours now

I would try and seek otu Cory on the SN board.IIRC she has a dd with hypermobility.

Good luck to your dc with the physio

As Fanjolina says, almost impossible to predict what the longterm effects are going to be. It may be that he can move over to insoles later on, or even nothing at all, but I wouldn't worry about that now.

The good news is that the Piedro boots are helping him and he is avoiding strain and damage to the rest of his body by wearing them. I'd just concentrate on that for the time being. Dd was not diagnosed early enough to have Piedro boots, and by the time she was diagnosed she was quite bad. So just enjoy the Piedros; they're saving his knees and hips and back.

my ds1 was also seen too late to get any physio help. He is very hypermobile and also has dyspraxia, but he doesn't need support for walking. He has an unusual gait and falls over constantly, but he manages. He has OT to build control and strength. I think it varies so much from person to person that it is impossible to predict how things are going to change.

Thanks everyone.

I have to say they are great. Just been out shopping and he wanted to get out of the buggy all the time to walk and that's never happened before!

Perhaps when we get some new ones they won't be so ugly either... but that's just stupid vanity!

Minko - you should be able to get much nicer ones. People were always asking me where I got the ones my son wore, because they looked so nice.

My son finally started walking at about 23 months and from memory had the boots from about 18 months (to practice walking up and down with support) until he was just over 2 and a half. His physio was of the opinion that he should wear than for as short a time as possible, because if you wear them they provide the necessary support to enable walking with a reasonable gait, but also prevent the ankles from strengthening up as much as possible in order to be able to do without them... so once he was walking more securely with a slightly less wide-based gait, he lost the privilege! His gait now, at 4.5 years, is completely normal, but his ankles pronate severely and he is completely flat footed, so we're seeing a geneticist soon in the hope of a proper diagnosis in the further hope that we might then get some proper advice on how to protect his joints in the long term. All we've been told so far is not just to go off by ourselves to get inserts for his shoes, because his whole body and posture need reviewing by a specialist - otherwise, correcting the pronation on its own may transfer the problem up his body and cause long-term problems elsewhere (as leaving him uncorrected is probably doing, anyway...). No specialist review being offered, yet, of course, but hopefully it will be, soon!!!