AFOs

Ryan just got his newest addition to his arsenal of pediatric helpers: his brand new AFOs!

You may remember last summer we got him some SMOs. He eventually grew out of those and we recently went to the orthotics office to get them resized and reshaped for him. We did a joint PT/orthotics appointment and while we were there, our PT, Ashley, mentioned that she thought he could use some AFOs.  So his SMOs got resized and we ordered the AFOs.

This is a little off topic, but the orthotics office has this huge bear in the room to entertain the kids during the appointments, and Ryan was intrigued. He crawled right over to it and was playing with it. It was so cute!

Ryan with Ashley and the gigantic bear

Checking out his bear friend

Decided he likes him "beary" much ;)

AFO stands for ankle-foot orthosis. Here's an overview of what it does and what it's for:
This device is used to control instabilities in the lower limb by maintaining proper alignment and controlling motion. A plastic AFO is a custom fabricated, molded plastic device that encloses the back of the calf and bottom of the foot. The AFO functions by maintaining the affected joints in proper alignment to overcome weakness or muscle imbalance.
(That is not my synopsis - I copied and pasted from scheckandsiress.com).

Ryan's new AFOs

We're slowly building up the amount of time that Ryan can wear them during the day. His therapist Ashley thinks these will help him with additional stability to help him with standing and eventually walking. Ashley said it will probably take some time for him to get used to them and he may resist crawling, transitioning, standing, etc in them until he's used to them. So far though, he's been taking it like a champ and when he has worn them, he's been doing everything he would typically do.

My hero

I have noticed that there are some red places around his ankles, and that could be an indication that we need to make adjustments to his AFOs. We never want them to be uncomfortable or to be rubbing his skin. I have a follow up appointment with orthotics scheduled to get it looked at so we can make adjustments as needed. We'll be following a light wearing schedule until that appointment so that we don't make any sore areas or places where it rubs worse.

Bless his heart. He doesn't spend much time on his feet. We've been instructed to make sure he stands while holding on to something as much as possible, with his braces on, to bear weight. He can stand up while holding onto the coffee table or something similar. You can totally tell that he is falling behind because his feet are definitely smaller than his brothers. Bearing weight helps to build muscle as well as make bones stronger, so the less those muscles and bones are used, the smaller they are. Hopefully these AFOs will help him develop in some of the areas where he struggles.
*Note: we normally would have shoes on over his AFOs but this was a specifically a photo opp for this blog and I wanted the AFOs to be visible. The bottom of the AFOs are smooth plastic and would be too slippery for him to wear without shoes on a hardwood floor, for example.