Help - Friend's 20 month old child has had both legs put in plaster and she needs tips to help him cope.

[tokentotty]

In an attempt to remedy a walking problem due to her son only using tiptoes on one foot the hospital put both her 20 month old son's legs in plaster from the knees down. I wondered if anyone had been through the same and if there were any tips for keeping him sane throughout the next 6 weeks!!

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Oh, poor little soul. Must be horrible for him.

No personal exoperience, but this blog has great ideas for keeping a child of that age busy.

Hello TT. I do have experience of this. MY son had surgery on both Achilles tendons and both legs in plaster from knees down when he was 5. Once he had recovered from the general anaesthetic we were told to treat him exactly as normal. He was given little boots to cover the bottom of the casts and he was up and running about as normal within a few days. I got slightly flamed on a thread months ago about this when I mentioned that within a week of surgery I went to pick up his sister from a friend's house and looked out to see him happily bouncing on the trampoline.

It depends on what his consultant/Physio has said but I was told to let him do what he felt able. He had to keep the casts dry so I had to keep him in if it was raining but he went back to school quickly. He wore through 3 sets of cast within the 6 weeks and they were extremely happy to change them as they fell apart. It isn't the same as having a broken bone that needs to re grow. Your friend may find she doesn't need to do anything to keep him amused than she wouldn't already do.

I had been warned that it could take months after the plaster was removed to walk properly again. On the day he couldn't bear weight on his feet so the following morning I took him swimming which he loved. In the pool he rapidly got his confidence back about standing up and walked back to the car when we'd finished. He was able to return to school the following day although it did take a couple of months to really regain full stamina.

Thank you very much both of you. At the moment its the physical aspects of a very young child in plaster that's the problem and wondered perhaps Kandinsky if there were any recommendations you had regarding discomfort, sleeping, irritation etc. Where she's unable to communicate with him properly as he doesn't yet speak it's not helpful.

Sorry TT missed your last post. Hope all is going well with your friends's son. My son didn't seem to find it particularly uncomfortable as the tops are very well padded so shouldn't rub but do suggest she puts a throw or something over chairs etc as the fibreglass played hell with the edge of my sofa. You can buy waterproof covers to go over the casts so he can still be bathed. They are not perfect but didn't relish the thought of 6 weeks without a bath.
PM me if there is anything else I can help with in case I don't see a return post.