Night braces to correct pigeon toed walking?

[Anonymous]

As a baby, I wore a bar with two little turned out white shoes while I slept and i wore braces legs till kindergarten. I noticed when I got in my 40's that I just didn't enjoy walking as exercise...and in my mid-late 40's I would have occasional hip pain. Now, I have pretty bad hip arthritis in my right hip. I've often wondered if those braces turned my right foot out too much and the cartilage wore away. I guess I'll never know for sure...but I'm going to have to have something done on my hip...

[Anonymous]

Literally just saw a top pediatric orthopedic for this issue, who explicitly told me most kids will outgrow this by age 8-10, and those who don't are NOT HELPED by braces. In fact, we were told, the only difference between kids who had a brace and those who didn't was that the former ended up with lower self-esteem and more mental health issues.

It is not what the research recommends, it's not what doctors recommend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Literally just saw a top pediatric orthopedic for this issue, who explicitly told me most kids will outgrow this by age 8-10, and those who don't are NOT HELPED by braces. In fact, we were told, the only difference between kids who had a brace and those who didn't was that the former ended up with lower self-esteem and more mental health issues.

It is not what the research recommends, it's not what doctors recommend.

Who did you see? I’m looking for a pediatric orthopedist now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Literally just saw a top pediatric orthopedic for this issue, who explicitly told me most kids will outgrow this by age 8-10, and those who don't are NOT HELPED by braces. In fact, we were told, the only difference between kids who had a brace and those who didn't was that the former ended up with lower self-esteem and more mental health issues.

It is not what the research recommends, it's not what doctors recommend.

We were told the same at Children's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was born in 1974, my parents also had me on the night braces, they were hard white walking shoes with a copper or metal bar you could tighten with a screw on the bottom as opposed to breaking the legs. My mom put me in ballet when I was 3 and I loved it and danced for 15+ yrs. I know that ballet and yoga helped me however the hip arthritis/sciatica r the worst. The most comfortable position is toes in even when I'm sleeping. Does anyone else have hip pain that used the night braces???

I was born 1970. I wore theses brace. I have always had pain in my hips. I broke my hip and feel it was them being weak from what the braces caused.

[Anonymous]

I was born in 1954 and toed in so badly I wore the braces at night. White shoes, silver bar in between. I remember well, as when I would get up in the morning in order to walk, I had to swing my way along, cutting into the floor on screws on that bar. I was also knock kneed. The knock kneed never went away, but it was not that bad, and never an issue until recently. As another person said here, I also could barely touch my toes and had great difficulty with flexibility. Went out for letter girl and could never do the splits. I thought it was because I was tall, 5'10". I was a good long distance runner, and have heard pigeon "toedness" is good for running. I jogged until 8 years ago, at which time my back started hurting and stiffening so I couldn't stand up straight after sitting down after a run. Then I started limping. Went to a rheumatologist and she told me I had arthritis in my right hip and if I did not stop running, I would hasten a hip replacement. I gave up running but soon walking hurt too. I am now considering the hip replacement on my right hip, but was disturbed to hear from the ortho surgeon that my knock knee on that same leg, which I could see had gotten worse these last few years, may also require a replacement. He said most likely arthritis is causing that worsening. My mom had bad arthritis, so I figured all this was inherited, but after reading these posts, I too am wondering if the braces did damage to my hip and knees. I will be bringing all this up to my ortho doctor next time I see him. Did the braces contribute to these other problems or is it all arthritis caused?

[Anonymous]

Knock-kneed and toed in, starting walking at 10 months. Corrective shoes until I was in third grade, constantly told to “toe out,” ballet for waaaaaay too long too many times per week at too young an age, and something at night (don’t remember exactly what, but it wasn’t a bar with shoes on it; I think it was around my hips and thighs?). I rolled my ankle so many times during high school while playing soccer and field hockey. I no longer run, and I get awful pain in my lower back and right hip when I’m on uneven surfaces, walk over 2 miles or step down to hard on my right foot.

[Anonymous]

So sorry to come into this thread late. Our oldest DD walked pigeon-toed when she first started walking. Someone might have already mentioned this, but the pediatric orthopedist recommended “straight last shoes”. Normal shoes curve slightly at the toes toward the inside of your leg. These shoes are straight at the toes, not curved. So they help train the toes to point forward more when walking without a huge correction like the night braces or bar. It’s a more gentle PT treatment. She wore the straight last shoes (sneaker version) until she was ready for the next size up. I can’t remember now since she’s 17, but we went through either one size or 2. And it worked without damaging night treatments.

[Anonymous]

I wore braces because I was pigeon toed in the early sixties for about 3 to 4 years. I hated them!!! When I turned 60, I had to have a hip replacement and now my other hip is killing me. Does anyone think there is a correlation between night braces and hip problems?

[Anonymous]

I just ran across this board and OMG, I didn't know there were so many people with the same issues I am experiencing. I wore a brace overnight (I still remember the metal red bar and the shoes with toes cut out). I was the third child and strangely I am the only child my parents had that was severely in-toed. When I started to walk, my feet would overlap and I would step on my own feet, falling. Fast-forward to my mid-30s and I started to have severe pain in my right hip. I ended up having surgery to remove bone spurs on the head of my femur as it was tearing up the joint. The year after that I had to have a microdiscectomy due to sciatic pain on the left side going all down my leg into my foot from a bulging disc. Nearly 7 years later, I am having sciatic pain again and was told that my pelvis tends to tilt forward. I don't know if all of this is directly related to the overnight brace I had to wear to correct my feet. I have heard opinions both to the affirmative and negative. I feel that due to having a bad "foundation", the rest of me is not in alignment. My siblings don't have the hip or back problems that I have, but maybe it is coincidence. I just feel like it is all due to that stupid brace. I know that the options were limited for my parents as we were in a very rural area. I don't blame them, they were doing what they thought was best. I would like to know if there are any studies of adults who wore a foot brace as a child.

[Anonymous]

I wore those when I was a kid! Nobody would know I had been born this way.

[Anonymous]

My mom is a pediatric PT, and has a very low-tech solution for this problem if the child is young enough. Just have them wear their shoes on the wrong feet.

[Anonymous]

I also have terrible hip/pelvic/leg pain that I feel could be a result of wearing these braces as a child. The pain is chronic and sometimes brings me to tears. Has anyone found a remedy for this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also have terrible hip/pelvic/leg pain that I feel could be a result of wearing these braces as a child. The pain is chronic and sometimes brings me to tears. Has anyone found a remedy for this?

You may be mixing cause and effect. It is possible that you needed braces as a child because one of your hips is out of the socket. This may have caused gait issues that the braces temporarily corrected. I would start with an orthopedic work up.

[Anonymous]

Fwiw my ped PT was way better than the Ped ortho we saw. And she did tons to help my DC progress (ortho said wait for things to correct on their own which probably wouldn’t have happened). She also tried all sorts of things from taping to recommending certain shoes. If you trust the PT I wouldn’t just discount what suggestions you get.