don't know what to do

[ginak1973]

Hi

My 6 year old daughter fractured her tibia and had to wear a full length cast, non weight bearing for 7 weeks. Friday last week the cast was removed and she was discharged from the fracture clinic with a pair of crutches with the instruction of 'don't run on it for at least 4 weeks'.

Well, right now it is difficult to get her to put her foot down fully and on the odd occassion she does, her leg sticks out to the side and her foot is turned slightly under. Between my husband and myself we are trying to think of light exercises for her to do to build up the strength in her leg again and to make the joint more supple but we are at a loss as to how to get her to 'walk' in a normal motion - rather than the leg out to the side motion she has adopted.

Am I (we) expecting too much too soon? can anyone advise of some exercises that will not only build strength but also confidence? Or, should we maybe consider taking her to a couple of physio sessions?

Naturally, she is scared and this is causing some of the problems.

If anyone has any ideas they could share with me so I can help my daughter I would be very grateful.

Similar Threads:

• why don't we called doctors ?
• Toes don't touch the floor
• Dull ache in my calfs if DON'T exercise
• Don't go through Reed Health!

[puntanela]

Dear Ginak,
It is completly normal that after 7 week, the strenght is almost gone, as the propioception and coordination.

First this, you should ask the doctor how much she can load the foot, so that u dont go to fast...he will give u a % of the total weight, for example 25%. Then u can calculate this from the weight of you daughter and train with a weight.

I would anyway highly recomend u to visit a physio asap, so you can get advices of how to walk, and start loading.

Good luck!

[PANDYA_VISHWA]

u should take her to the physio sessions as it is very necessary for ur daughter to walk into the normal position n for that u need physio sessions it will be somewhat painful but it will be very beneficial

[nellmead]

Hi Gina

Really sorry to hear about your daughter. Yes, there is a lot that you can do, and you should definitely take your daughter to a good physio to help her get walking again.

In the mean time, I would suggest that you start massaging her whole leg: thigh, calf and shin, if you're not doing this already. The period she has spent in a cast may have caused some adhesions within the muscle tissue, and the massage can help with this. It can also help with her sensation, with any swelling that remains around the fracture site (which there will be for some time) and psychologically it helps to remind her that the leg is ok. It will probably help to use some sort of oil as her skin is likely to be fairly delicate after 7 weeks in a cast. Baby oil is ok; or I use a base oil from Neal's Yard Remedies which costs me about a fiver.

In addition, there are various helpful exercises you can get her doing at home. Her ankle is probably very stiff, so get her sitting down with her leg out in front of her (or, ideally, slightly elevated as this will help with the swelling - perhaps she could rest her calf on the arm of the sofa) and get her to draw circles in the air with her ankles. She should also stand facing up the stairs on the bottom step, on both feet with her heels hanging off the edge (holding on with both hands) and go up and down on tiptoes, dropping her heels below the step. She'll find this hard at first but it will get easier!

Another good exercise for learning to step again is again to stand on the bottom step of the stairs, but this time standing sideways on, with the good leg on the step and the injured leg hanging off. Then she can just swing the leg back and forth without worrying about the pain of putting the foot down. This helps to retrain the movement of walking.

Finally, I'd suggest an exercise called "rock walking". Essentially you stand with the good leg forward and the injured leg back, as if you were taking a pace, and you rock your bodyweight back and forth from one leg to the other. Then you switch legs. After a little while of doing this statically, you can progress this to step forward/rock forward/rock back/rock forward and step through/rock forward/rock back/rock forward and step through (try it, it won't make sense at first but after a few goes it will get easier!)

Good luck!

Nell