AFO Pictures

(Yes, this is the face she ALWAYS makes when the camera comes out. And yes, that is how her hair ALWAYS looks. She pulls out her piggie tails usually within 20min of putting them in and a clump of hair usually accompanies it.)

Here are some pictures of Melanie's AFO's. They are much smaller then I was anticipating. The start just above the ankle instead of below the knee, YAY!! She is tolerating them very well. They take a while to fit on and she sometimes gets a little impatient with that, but once they're on she doesn't fight them one bit. A friend that also had a preemie that needed AFO's gave us a couple pairs of shoes to try that worked for her daughter. THEY FIT!! YAY! No more shoe stores. She had a size 6 and 7. Melanie 'just' fit into the 6. There's tons of toe room, just not much wiggle room in the top of the ankle.


The shoes/braces make walking for much more clumsy. She is dragging her left foot a little more and often chooses to crawl when she would normally stand or walk around things. It takes much more discipline on my part to walk with her and encourage her to walk. However, I am finding that once the shoes/braces come off she is light as a feather and feels much more confident. She then wants to walk everywhere and will try to take more steps on her own. So if that's the goal of these AFO's we're winning~however, I'm not sure that's how they're supposed to work.