What Causes Clubfoot in Pregnancy & How Doctors Handle It

 

Clubfoot baby treatment

A baby with a twisted foot is born per 1,000 births, on average. With the toes bent at an amusing angle, it might curl to the side. Or it could be crooked, almost upside down, or have a strange shape and point in the incorrect direction. This condition is referred to as clubfoot by doctors.

Approximately half of the infants with clubfoot are born with it on both feet, but the majorities are otherwise healthy.

Even though clubfoot does not hurt, if it is left untreated, it may be challenging for a youngster to walk without a limp. Most children don't suffer long-term consequences because it's usually simple to fix.

Is it preventable?

The muscles and tendons in and around the foot are shorter than they should be which leads to clubfoot. Tendons are bands of tissue that connect muscles to bones.

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There is no way to guarantee that your baby won't be born with it, and doctors don't know what causes it. However, some factors increase the risk of clubfoot. They consist of:

• Gender: Males make up two-thirds of clubfoot infants.
• Family background: Clubfoot is twice as likely to occur in infants whose parent or sibling had it.
• Choices of lifestyle: The likelihood that your unborn child will have it increases if you smoke or use illegal substances while you're pregnant.
• Further birth abnormalities: Sometimes it's connected to another ailment a baby is born with, like spina bifida.
• Inadequate amniotic fluid during pregnancy: This encompasses your unborn child in the womb. Your kid is more likely to be born with clubfoot if it is insufficient.

Symptoms

• When a baby is first born, clubfoot is quite obvious. Here are a few indicators:
• The toes may be pointing inward while the foot is pointing down.
• The foot seems to be turned sideways or perhaps even upside down.
• The difference between the foot and a typical foot could be up to a half-inch.
• It's possible that the affected leg doesn't have fully developed calf muscles.
• There can be a finite range of motion for the foot.

Most medical professionals can identify clubfoot just by taking a quick glance at your newborn. Your doctor might catch it if you have an ultrasound done around the end of your pregnancy.

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Treatment

Soon after your baby is delivered, your doctor will start to treat the clubfoot. The objective is to correct it early enough to avoid delays because babies don't use their feet until they can stand and walk. A cast or surgery will be used by your doctor.

The casting process: Doctors are able to move the clubfoot in the proper direction to help with the condition since tendons can flex and stretch quite easily in infants. They gently nudge the foot into a place that is more in line with where it ought to be. Then, to keep it in place, they put on a cast.

The doctor removes the cast about a week later. The infant's foot is gently stretched once again, moved, and a new cast is applied. They'll carry on in this manner for a few weeks or months. Your doctor might use X-rays to verify that the baby's bones are gradually shifting into the proper locations.

Your infant will need to wear a special brace or shoe to keep their clubfoot at the proper angle until they have learned to walk if the series of casts help to repair it. This is due to the fact that a clubfoot frequently returns to its original posture. For some kids, the brace or shoe may only need to be worn temporarily. Others might require it for a few years to maintain the correct foot angle.

Surgical procedures: Stretching and casting won't help if the tendons and other tissues in your baby's foot are too short. In this situation, surgery might be effective.

Between the ages of six months and a year, clubfoot surgery is frequently performed on infants. The doctor fixes everything in a single procedure, unlike the progressive casting process. To turn and mold the foot into a more natural position, they could stretch tendons or do other actions.

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The baby will require a cast following surgery to maintain the proper angle of the foot. They will then require a brace or specialized footwear for roughly a year to prevent the foot from returning to its previous position.

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