Night Splints, what does your boys look like?
I was wondering what style night splints the boys out there are using.
My boys just got new night splints and they look alot different than the old ones. It turns out that the script was not made out correctly. These one have hinges and the PT at Cincinnati wants us to get the other ones. I just found out Friday and now I have to call the orthotics place and I am not looking forward to it. In the mean time Calvin says they are more comfortable that the old ones and we can set them at 90º. However I am not very happy with the ortho since this is the same place we got them before and I wonder why they would not have looked back at the records. What should I do?
My boys just got new night splints and they look alot different than the old ones. It turns out that the script was not made out correctly. These one have hinges and the PT at Cincinnati wants us to get the other ones. I just found out Friday and now I have to call the orthotics place and I am not looking forward to it. In the mean time Calvin says they are more comfortable that the old ones and we can set them at 90º. However I am not very happy with the ortho since this is the same place we got them before and I wonder why they would not have looked back at the records. What should I do?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Keith & Jill VE on
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We received our AFOs in February and they have a hinge with adjustable resistance, which we've been increasing every few weeks.
Based on your comments, I'm now wondering if we have the right ones... :(
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Permalink Reply by Joshua's mom on
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Joshua's AFO's don't have a hinge. The reason why is without a hinge, it gives their legs the slight stretch during the night by keeping his feet at a 90o angle. With a hinge, it gives their legs too much leeway and defeats the purpose entirely.
Naomi
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Permalink Reply by Eileen DeLong on
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They do have velcro straps to keep them at the right angle.
Joshua's mom said:Joshua's AFO's don't have a hinge. The reason why is without a hinge, it gives their legs the slight stretch during the night by keeping his feet at a 90o angle. With a hinge, it gives their legs too much leeway and defeats the purpose entirely.
Naomi
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I think there are variations out there. That why I was asking. But I think every PT/Dr has their preferences.
Keith & Jill VE said:We received our AFOs in February and they have a hinge with adjustable resistance, which we've been increasing every few weeks.
Based on your comments, I'm now wondering if we have the right ones... :(
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Permalink Reply by Donna on
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Kyle has the ones with the hinge and velcro straps to adjust the degree. At first the PT didn't think we had the right ones either but then liked them because we had just started this whole mess and could slowly get him to the 90 degree angle. We did have to switch out his velcro because it wasn't holding when he'd stretch out in his sleep - the new stuff is tough as nails :-). But overall they seem to do the trick. Considering we haven't had the other kind, I don't really have a better reference.
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Just FYI - with the adjustable-resistance hinge, his feet stay at 90 degrees when he's sleeping...
Joshua's mom said:Joshua's AFO's don't have a hinge. The reason why is without a hinge, it gives their legs the slight stretch during the night by keeping his feet at a 90o angle. With a hinge, it gives their legs too much leeway and defeats the purpose entirely.
Naomi
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Permalink Reply by Keith Van Houten on
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Was the script from the doctor wrong, or the order from the orthotics guy to the manufacturer wrong? If it was the order - I'd tell him you want the same kind you had before, because that's what the specialist PT thinks is best. At his expense. You shouldn't have to live with his mistake. If the script from Cincy - or wherever - is wrong, that gets trickier, I'd imagine... Let us know how it works out.
We have the fixed 90 degree type, Cascade DAFO 3.5 Softy.
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Permalink Reply by Kelvinsmom - Michelle on
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We have the sames ones that Keith just listed above. I have always wondered about the hinged ones, as whether it would be good to get them a bit farther than 90 degrees and hold it all night, as I'm sure we could do, just didn't know if it would be good to. I've never asked either. Michelle
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Permalink Reply by JUAN PEDRO ARBULU on
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Please let me know if these are used for kids who walk on toes and have achilles tendon shortened.
Thank you
JP.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Johnson on
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Eileen,
There are several threads on night splints out there - one in particular title "Night Splints" had some info. Here's a post I added to that thread - because our son has the hinged type and Dr. Wong prescribes the non-hinged type - so I asked her why: And it seems mostly to be a matter of preference - not anything particularly medically overridding for one over the other: Here's my original post from the other thread
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Ok - so I was curious as to why we have the hinged type and it seems like Dr. Wong's group prescribes the unhinged - so I emailed her to ask. (Side note: Isn't she great - I'm not even a patient and no more than 2 hours later I get a response...)
Basically here is the paraphrasing of her response:
Their main goal for prescribing the hinges is to maintain the ankles at resting position during sleep - not to do actual stretching, as the boys should be getting that during their stretching routines in the daytime. She also said they've found if actually stretching the ankles at night the kids don't sleep as well.
She then included the PT form Cinci, Michelle, on the thread and Michelle added that they also found "with the hinged braces is that the boys ended up pushing back out of them if they provide too much of a stretch....therefore defeating the purpose and also possibly causing muscle damage if they end up working their muscles all night pushing down on the brace instead of relaxing into the stretch"
So it seems as though in our case we are probably ok with the 9.0 hinged type. As we do provide a little stretch on them (not much - we've found as Dr. Wong noted that if we stretch too much - the boys wake up and complain about the braces in the middle of the night) and they tolerate the minor stretching just fine and don't work out of them as Michelle notes...
So that was a very enlightening bit of email as to why they prefer the one over the other... And I guess (disclaimer ;-) - these are my own thoughts here - with no medical or PT experience to back them up) you can go with the hinged kind and keep it adjusted at 90* which is essentially the same as the non-hinged, but also gives you the flexibility to stretch beyond 90* if you are using your braces in conjunction with your nighlty stretching routine, which we do. We use the braces stretched beyond 90* along with some knee braces to keep his legs straight - then he sits in those while watching TV for a while to give a long stretch to his hamstrings).
Hope this info helps - I found their responses to be very useful.
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Thanks for the info everyone. I got in touch with Dr.Wong and the ortho yesterday. The ortho place is willing to correct the problem and Dr.Wong has sent them new scripts. She is so great. I don't know how she gets so much done so quickly. Now if I can just get Jared to keep them on and sleep in his bed!
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