spinecor

[BellasMom]

The 1st week the leg bands really bothered my daughter (she's 9), but after a week she was ok with them. The skin has to "toughen up" a little.
My mother has altered girls "boy leg" underwear for her as she doesn't care for the spinecor bodysuit. (She finds the crotch part too long.) Anyway, my mother put a few snaps in the crotch of the boy leg underwear and she wears an undershirt. That's what has helped us!

Bella has some body leg underwear, but it's way too short to cover her thighs where the bands are. Plus, she seems to like SpineCor bodysuit - may be because they had the right size for her, it fits her perfectly (for now). But thanks for the advice, I'll look in stores for some other model of that underwear

I am just hoping that her skin toughens up a little as you say

[christine2]

Bellas Mom

It is a tough position to be in. Different measurement/different ortho's. I went and saw another ortho(who was fabulous BTW) and his exrays were a bit different than Dr Rivards. Long story short I called Dr. Rivard in a panic thinking that the curve had progressed and want to see him ASAP. He said not to woryy it all depends on body positioning during the xray. I have read that hear quite often too.

That being said I am going to share my very opinionated veiws on waiting & watching. Hopefully it does open a can of worms!!

I think waiting and watching can be dangerous. Why not use spinecor. It is a very easy brace to wear. There is very little effect on quaility of life. And if we were wrong not doing the wait and watch thing then so be it.

One of our ortho opinions said to me, I don't know what to do. 6 yrs old and a 33 degree curve. He flat out told me to keep doing the Spinecor, you have nothing to loose.

My daughter will only wear the spinecor suits, also as underware. I save money not having to buy her underware She is very thin but tall and they fit her like a glove. She is willing to try the boyshort suit if we can get her size.

[BellasMom]

I agree that SpineCor is a good solution, I was just saying that if our ortho did not scare me half to death (9 degrees in 3 months), I might've made the wrong decision with "wait and see" approach

So, I am glad that she is in Spinecor and I hope that this will be the solution for her

She is playing around with her brother right now and seems that she completely forgot about the brace, but when the time comes to put it on again (after she'll take it off tonight), it'll be a struggle

[BellasMom]

Flying in brace

I just realized that in a week we are flying to Mexico for a vacation. Of course I knew that we were going, but I just now realized that we have a child with a lot of metal on her

How do you go through security with a child in brace? Do you take it off? Do you keep it on and show some kind of note from your doctor?

Thanks

[emarismom]

We have flown many times over the past year and a half that Emily has had her brace. Most of the time there has been no problem with her wearing her brace through security. The security checkpoints are set to pick up a "certain amount" of metal, and the brace does not reach that certain amount.

There was one time that Emily had on her brace and was wearing a belt that had a metal belt buckle. That time she did have on too much metal. The security officers took us into a side room to "check" her. They allowed me to go in with her, but I wasn't allowed to speak to her. They had her pull up her shirt (it was a woman officer) and asked her all kinds of questions about what she was wearing, why, how long, etc. Then they had her take off the belt and walk through the metal detector again, that time it didn't go off and we were free to go.

Moral off the story: The brace is fine to go through, just be careful not to put on anything else with metal to not go over the limit.

[BellasMom]

Thanks! This is very helpful!

[Jenmom]

bodysuit with boyshorts in youth size

Hi everyone,

I emailed Rita to ask if she was going to do a youth size in the suit. She said it is being made and will be on the website next week. She said to type scoliosis in the comment section to get a 10% discount. Not sure when they will actually be ready to ship though. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Kathy

[christine2]

Excellent on the bodysuit info Jenmom. We are going to try one.

Thanks!!

[BellasMom]

Hi everyone,

I emailed Rita to ask if she was going to do a youth size in the suit. She said it is being made and will be on the website next week. She said to type scoliosis in the comment section to get a 10% discount. Not sure when they will actually be ready to ship though. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Kathy

Hurray!!!!!!

Thanks for the update!

[BellasMom]

crotch and thigh bands

Since thigh bands are bothering Bella so much, my husband and I kept looking at the brace trying to figure out why they are there to begin with.

In our minds, crotch bands are the thing that is keeping the pelvic base in place, not the thigh bands, but at the same time, when you go to the bathroom, you are allowed to unsnap the crotch bands, but not the thigh ones. We were told that if we unsnap the thigh bands, we'll have to re-do the whole brace

Why are they there and what is their purpose in life (of the brace)?

Second question - how long did it take your child to start putting the brace on by herself? It takes me a while to put it on Bella, so I can't imagine her doing this on her own. My biggest issue is in keeping bolero in place. After I pull #1 hard enough to snap it, no matter how hard I pull on #2 in a different direction, bolero is always at least a little off center. Also, how can they snap them in the back by themselves????

[HaleyMom]

In our minds, crotch bands are the thing that is keeping the pelvic base in place, not the thigh bands, but at the same time, when you go to the bathroom, you are allowed to unsnap the crotch bands, but not the thigh ones. We were told that if we unsnap the thigh bands, we'll have to re-do the whole brace

Why are they there and what is their purpose in life (of the brace)?

The thigh bands hold the pelvic base level by anchoring on the outside of the leg rather than the inner thigh area like the crotch bands. Without the thigh bands the the straps around the hips would ride up on the side that has the most tension.

Second question - how long did it take your child to start putting the brace on by herself? It takes me a while to put it on Bella, so I can't imagine her doing this on her own. My biggest issue is in keeping bolero in place. After I pull #1 hard enough to snap it, no matter how hard I pull on #2 in a different direction, bolero is always at least a little off center. Also, how can they snap them in the back by themselves????

My daughter had to put the brace on and take it off at least 10 times before she left the office at her fitting to ensure she knew how to do it by herself (she was 10 at the time). She's done it by herself ever since. The bolero may look a little off center (it even looks off center in the SpineCor manual) depending on how crooked and rotated your daughter is. If you're concerned, take a picture and email it to your Dr.

[CAmomof2]

We always help our daughter put her brace on. She can manage the bottom part, but the top part is not as easy.

[jillw]

Why are they there and what is their purpose in life (of the brace)?
Second question - how long did it take your child to start putting the brace on by herself? It takes me a while to put it on Bella, so I can't imagine her doing this on her own. My biggest issue is in keeping bolero in place. After I pull #1 hard enough to snap it, no matter how hard I pull on #2 in a different direction, bolero is always at least a little off center. Also, how can they snap them in the back by themselves????

Bellas mom, the thigh bands are very important to stablize the pelvic base (i.e. the anchor of the entire brace). In fact another group did a study of spinecor and apparently left out the thigh bands (according to the pictures they published with the study) and their results were not good at all.

When we would put Katie's brace on, I would also have her pull on the #2 at the same time to help keep the bolero centered. Nonetheless the bolero is often a little off center. Dr. Rivard wasn't concerned when I raised this issue with him. I also found that once we snapped the #3, her pelvic base would be pulled of center. So when we put on her pelvic base, instead of centering it to start with, we put it a little to the opposite side. Then when the #3 pulls it, it actually pulls it back into centered position (more or less) make sense?

I don't remember exactly how long it took Katie to put her brace on - I figured I'd be doing it for her until she got much older! A few months into it, she started to put the base of her brace on herself. She did that regularly (and I would do the top) Then, 5 months or so into it, her #4 started to come unsnapped. After a while of this happening, she got tired of coming to me (or the school nurse if in school) to have it resnapped so she figured out how to do it herself (she uses her fingers to count the snaps on the back so that she knows where to put it and then she does it by feel). That problem went away when we had the snap replaced. A little while after that she started to show an interest in trying to do the entire brace herself. (on weekends when there was plenty of time for her to experiment) She was so proud when she finally mastered it herself and now she always puts in on by herself (for the first couple months she would put it on when there was no rush, but if time was an issue I would still put it on her. Now she almost always does it herself). She got her brace in 10/07 and I know that before the summer of '08 started, she was able to do it herself (which was a huge relief with girl scout camp/swimming coming up). You'll find that you will get MUCH quicker at putting the brace on her over time and my daughter is now pretty quick also (much faster than she was when she started). Basically, we never asked our daughter to try and put on the brace because it was all so overwhelming to begin with. But as things settled down, we followed her lead when she showed interest in learning how to do it herself.

[christine2]

My daughter still can't put the brace completly on herself. The snaps are to hard for her little fingers. My Daughter does not undo the crotch snaps to potty just the bodysuit snaps

[BellasMom]

JillW, I completely agree with not putting more pressure on our kids in regard of putting the brace on right away

We have the same scheme - Bella puts on the bottom and I do the top. Hopefully, by the summer time, she'll be able to put it on all by herself, since she is going to the overnight camp for 2 weeks (I doubt that Dr. R will let her not wear it at all for 2 weeks )

As for the thigh bands, the mechanics are still escaping me - I believe you and the doctors when they say that thigh bands keep the pelvic base in place, but being an engineer, I just don't see it They are not supposed to be very tight (or at least that's what Dr. C told us), so I don't see how they stabilize pelvic base more than the crotch bands do. But if everybody says so, I'll just trust it

Christine2, she does not undo the crotch bands???? She really mastered something unique