De-Rotation Straps Tutorial

My model let me take a few pictures today of us putting on her de-rotation straps. The straps help keep her legs and feet in correct alignment. A common problem amongst spina bifida little ones is that their legs like to rotate inwards causing a pigeon toed appearance when they are trying to walk. The de-rotation straps in the photos was given to us by Rachel's physical therapist and is made by SureSteps. She had told me that you could also use a very long ace wrap to achieve similar results. You would need to find the center of the ace wrap first and wrap the center of the ace wrap around your child's waist leaving two long tails to wrap as shown below.

The above picture is of the first time Rachel wore the straps. She is using size B tubigrips as knee protectors in this picture due to wearing shorts. I would recommend keeping pants or some sort of leg protectors while wearing the straps.

Place the de-rotation waist band on your child with the 2 long straps loose in the back.If your child needs extra support you can criss-cross the straps in the back before applying them to the legs.

Bring the straps to the front of the leg. It will pass over the hip and follow along the top of the thigh at an angle.(Go from lateral to medial)

Pass the strap behind the knee to below the front of the knee crossing over the front of the shin. (go from medial to lateral back to medial)

Pass the strap behind the ankle to the front of the ankle. Place the metal clip on to the velcro strap on your child's shoe and secure velcro strap on their shoe. (starting medial go lateral then towards medial ending by the top of the shoe)

In the photos above there is a lot of extra length of the strap. I followed the extra length of strap on top of the main strap and pinned into place with a baby safety pin. In future pictures of Rachel the extra length and baby safety pin will not be present- Rachel's physical therapist cut the straps to her length today.

Repeat with the other leg.You may have to readjust the length of the straps several times to get the right fit- don't get frustrated- the amount of support they provide your child is well worth a few extra minutes of strap adjusting.