The Mom Crowd

My three year old daughter wears little orthotic braces to help give her stability and I am often asked what they are and why she has them. It must first be stated that Darah has the cutest feet in the entire world! She has little short sausage toes and these wide, fat, squishy feet that anyone would want to “This little piggie went to market” at! She also has a sweet little sandle toe gap between her first and second little sausage toes. Ok, I’ll stop gushing about how stinking cute her feet are now and get back to the orthotics.

Darah’s ankles pronate; meaning when she stands up, they roll inward. Here’s a picture of how they roll inward while she stands. The weight is distributed in an awkward way and longterm side effects of this can be hip and back problems. Try it! Stand up and roll your ankles inward. Can you feel awkward pressure all the way up to your knees and hips?

This problem is not limited to children with Down syndrome, however a lot of children with Down syndrome have this problem because they commonly also have hypotonia and looser joints. Orthotics and shoe inserts can really help a person with ankle pronation. There are different types of orthotics. Some give more support, others give less support. My daughter has Sure Step Orthotics. These are specifically made for children who have ankle pronation or have an unbalanced or uncoordinated gait which is causing them to be delayed in their gross motor development. They are made from a very flexible plastic and are lightly cushioned. The plastic covers the bottom of her foot (stopping right before her toes) and covers the backs and sides of her lower ankles. When she wears converse style tennis shoes, they are completely hidden. Darah walks so much better when she is wearing them. She has to wear socks under them at all times, and cannot wear them without shoes over them (because they are slippy), so the con to orthotics is the sweaty feet they produce during the summer time. She wears them whenever she leaves the house. I let her have barefoot play at home. She will not necessarily wear these for forever, however she may need some sort of shoe insert or arch support for the rest of her life due to the severity of her pronation. This equipment is covered by our insurance. They also come in very fun patterns!

Here’s a good article by Pat Winders (the Physical Therapy God in the Down syndrome world) on gross motor development for children with Down syndrome.

Let me know if you have any questions about our experience with Darah’s orthotics! I will be happy to share any other information I have (or can dig up) for you! Also, please share your experiences with your child’s orthotics! Our readers would love to hear your stories as well!

A reader asks The Mom Crowd:

Hi, My husband (although he doesn’t know) and I have talked about having wanting another little one. I would like to have it myself, but can’t, because after my 2nd daughter was born, I had my tubes tied. I know I could have it reversed, but there was also the option of a surrogate mom. Can anyone shed some light on that subject, or know of anyone who has used a surrogate mom. Any advice would be great. Oh, I am 35, do my risks increase as my age does? Thanks Moms.

I personally do not have any experience with surrogacy, but I found these great sites that will give you more information. As I was going through the sites, I tried to find information that was not given by a Surrogacy Agency. I felt the information provided on Surrogacy Agency’s websites might be helpful, but may be partial to promote their business.

EverythingSurrogacy.com has many articles with good questions to help you decide if surrogacy is right for you, the different types of surrogacy, and the cost. One of the articles mentioned that a lot of information might be outdated. Be sure to get the newest information.

Surromomsonline.com has some general information and personal stories.

Surrogacy.com’s articles cover many topics such as medical, legal, psychology, and personal stories.

I researched flying with a baby a few months ago and enjoyed reading the stories of other parents’ experiences. So I decided to write my story about my first experience flying with a baby.

In August of last year I had to decide if I my baby and me were going to the Philippines with my husband and 10 other people in December. Part of my concern was traveling with a 7 month old. I researched flying with an infant and spoke to many parents. They all agreed that this would be a great time to travel with Ace, because she would not be crawling yet. So we bought the tickets and in December we left to travel to the other side of the world.

Security

Getting through security would have been a bigger challenge if I had to do it by myself. Luckily my husband was with me to help Ace and I get through the lines. Between the three of us we had five items: a car seat, a car seat frame stroller, a diaper bag, my backpack, and Daniel’s bag with a laptop computer. Almost each time we had to put everything through the security ex-ray machine, including breaking down the stroller. In addition, we had to take off all our shoes, even Ace’s little knock-off Robeez. The first time we went through the line my husband thought he lost his mobile phone. He found his phone, but we agreed to get through the line slower next time and not care about the people behind us. Going slow through the line may not have made the people behind us very happy, but we were much more relaxed and less stressed.

In the Los Angeles airport there was a special line for strollers and wheelchairs. We zipped right through the line while we waited over thirty minutes for our friends to get through the regular security line. In the Hong Kong airport before Daniel and I went through the security line a nice security man with clean white gloves held up his hands and asked for my baby. I handed him my baby thinking, he just wanted to see her. Then, on the other side of security we saw three security personnel crowded around my baby trying to get her to smile. They had sat her sitting up in her car seat. I wasn’t sure what to think about all of it, I was tired and just glad that my baby was okay after passing her off to a security guard.

Finally On The Plane

My husband, baby, and I did not always have our three seats assigned together. Imagine if I had left my baby in the row behind me next to two unassuming passengers! Every time we would not completely settle into our seats until we made sure that the seat next to us was empty or until after we asked someone to exchange seats with us. Everyone we asked politely obliged to move seats even though they did not have to.

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***SPOILER WARNING*** If you plan on seeing the movie ‘Juno’ and don’t want any spoilers – Don’t read this blog post! Come back and read it after you have seen the movie.

I got a chance to go out and see the movie ‘Juno’ tonight with my friend Melia after I laid Annabelle to bed. The movie is about a precocious sixteen-year-old named Juno and her journey through pregnancy.

As far as pregnancies in the movies go, I thought it portrayed pregnancy pretty close to the real thing. Except that I noticed some of her symptoms were out of order in the movie, but I could overlook that detail. It is a movie. “And if it is any consolation I have heartburn that is radiating in my knee caps.” So true!

We see Juno attempt to get an abortion, but decide not to because “the baby has fingernails.” I thought the protest and abortion scene was interesting, because I like to see how conservative hot button topics are portrayed in television and film. I always thought that protesters in front of abortion clinics weren’t very effective, but in this movie it was. Thank God that Su-Chin was one brave girl giving her time and speaking truth and yelling “Babies want to get borned! Babies want to get borned!” Su-Chin was not portrayed with excessive mocking or in a heavy sarcastic tone. It was somewhat mocking, but not as bad as it could have been.

Juno is quite verbal throughout the movie that she is giving the child up for adoption, but we see her struggle with the decision. We see her grow attached to the child inside of her when the baby kicks and she is playing with a car on her belly. In the end, she gives the child away. The scene pans to her and Bleeker crying in the hospital bed. Of course, I was balling! I don’t know if I could ever do what she did. I am glad that she did have some emotion over her baby, after she was very casual in the beginning of the film about the baby.

At the end of the film Vanessa brings the baby home, because “she was born to be a mom.” During the film I kept waiting to see if Vanessa would turn out to be fake or a horrible person, but she never did. She genuinely wanted to be a mom. When you see her holding the baby, you are happy for her. In the back of my head, I was wondering how she is going to care for a newborn all by herself. I couldn’t imagine. I was upset about her husband. My friend said that Mark leaving Vanessa made the movie more realistic.

The ending is bittersweet, but I am somehow happy with the way things turned out. I enjoy funky indie films and the verbal banter in the movie. My most favorite character was “Dwight”, “That ain’t no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can’t be un-did, homeskillet.”

Have you seen the movie? Did it remind you of ‘Saved!’ or ‘Little Miss Sunshine’? What are your thoughts on the portrayal of pregnancy in the movie?

As the mother of two children with congenital heart defects, I pay extra close attention to changes with the American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines. At my children’s last cardiology visit, our cardiologist informed me of a huge change the AHA has made. Many (not all) cardiac patients have been advised until recently to take a special antibiotic prior to dental work or surgery of any kind due to the risk of endocarditis. Endocarditis is an infection in the heart’s valves or lining and is spread through the bloodstream. This is a very serious and life-threatening infection. Dental work or medical procedures are a very common way this bacteria is spread. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been enough research to prove that the prophylaxis antibiotic is effective in preventing this infection and antibiotics have their own set of risks. The AHA has now changed their guidelines and does not recommend prophylaxis antibiotics prior to procedures except for a very small number of cardiac patients.

My children’s cardiology practice is saying “no thank you” to the AHA’s new guidelines. While unnecessary use of antibiotics can cause allergic reactions and antibiotic resistance, some people feel that a one time dose of antibiotic prior to a procedure does not contribute to the antibiotic resistance issue. It is also feared that this is the AHA’s way of getting the necessary research done to know for sure whether the antibiotic is effective in stopping the spread of endocarditis. It was impossible to ethical perform research studies under the previous guidelines.

This is a huge controversy among many families and the medical community and a very important issue. I am curious to see how this all plays out. I am curious to see how many cardiologists agree with the AHA and how many disagree and continue to prescribe antibiotics for their patients prior to procedures. My children will continue to receive the antibiotic prior to procedures and dental work until I and their cardiologist feel more confident in this new change, however please check with your cardiologist to see what precautions from endocarditis he or she recommends.

The AHA’s current information and guidelines on endocarditis can be found here.