New AFOs

AFO stands for Ankle Foot Orthotic. I talked about them before in this blog. Hailey got her first pair in November of 2012. At first she HATED them. Her feet where always pointed like a ballerina and her spasms were out of control. She wore her first AFOs for 12-15 hours a day and they put her foot in a 90* angle position. (Neutral)
She grew out of those AFOs in April. Kids grow out of shoes so fast! I was pretty bummed when she grew out of these after only 6 months of use, it's was almost like paying $500 a month for shoes and now she can't use them anymore, and that's the end of that. Since they are molded strictly to her foot they can't be recycled.?
We took her to get fitted for new AFOs with the thought that she's going to start to use a gait trainer and will need shoes that will allow her to flex and contract her ankle to "walk" in the trainer. We got her AFOs then she had an episode and it set us back so we had to hold off on the gait trainer. We are still fighting working with the insurance to have that approved. It's been almost 2 months and apparently they can take up to 90 days to approve or deny.
So with these new AFOs Hailey has to get used to them once again. Starting off with 2 hours a day for 5 days then 4 hours then eventually all day. She wears them to school and as soon as she gets off that bus she says, "Take it off" and points. We have to distract her but she is very adamant about getting her way. These one provide more stretch which cause more cramps which cause spasms which cause crying.
These are also different because these ones slip into real shoes. Shoes that are 2-3 sizes bigger then her foot. So we had to find the brightest pinkest shoe that we could. Things that are pink are easier to tolerate!