A baby has spent half of his life in leg casts after he was born with his feet – turned inward.
Baby Malakai Kade Sanders, four months, has spent the first eight weeks of his life in casts to straighten out his little legs.
Parents Kayla McHugh and Trai Jayden Sanders, both 27, found out their son had club foot, also known as Talipes, at 20 weeks pregnant.
Club foot is a deformity in which an infant’s foot or feet are turned inward.
Mum Kayla said her “heart sank” when doctors revealed the diagnosis.
She said: “It was extremely frightening, confusing and difficult to go through.
“Our biggest concerns and worries were what Malakai’s future was going to look like.
“Will he be able to walk? Will he be able to run one day?”
Since he was born, Malakai has had surgery on his feet and ankles, spent eight weeks in casts and will now have to wear special boots to help re-position his legs.
There’s still a long road ahead for Malakai but parents Kayla and Trai are hopeful and say Malakai’s future “actually looks really great.”
Kayla, an early life educator from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia found out about the irregularity during an ultrasound scan 20 weeks into her pregnancy.
The parents, who already have two children Jye, six, and Nixon, two, “knew something might not be quite right” when the technician changed the conversation during the scan.
The diagnose wasn’t immediately revealed to the parents and doctors had to run additional tests to confirm the condition
After a tense four-week wait for the results, the diagnosis was confirmed.
Kayla said she was “devastated, alone and so scared.”
She added: “We had never dealt with anything like this before so it was a very new unknown territory for us.
“We wondered if he’d get picked on for his condition and if it would cause him any serious grief as he got older.”
As soon as the diagnosis was confirmed, Kayla and Trai learnt everything they could about the condition and met up with a physiotherapist.
So when Malakai was born they were ready to face the challenge.
As soon as the young boy was born, he underwent six weeks of casting to re-position his little legs.
He then went on to have a procedure called a tenotomy followed with further casting.
A tenotomy is a procedure where an injured tendon is cut into to relieve pressure.
In Malakai’s case this was on his feet and ankles.
Once his tendons had healed and his final casts had been removed, Malakai was then put into a special pair of boots for 23 hours a day.
The Ponsetti boots are specially adapted with a bar to re-position the legs of the affected person.
Malakai will have to wear the boots until he is five years old and gradually reduce the hours he wears them a day.
Despite all the heartache and stress for Malakai and his parents, they say his future looks good and they’re looking forward to it as a family.
Kayla said: “Malakai’s future actually looks really great.
“Malakai may still need to undergo more procedures to his feet such as another Tenotomy or a tendon transfer however he may not have to.
“Every child is different and may need things others don’t. Only time will tell.”
“We still worry about the possibility of Malakai relapsing and having to go through casting, further surgeries and the boots and the bar into his teen/adult years.”
