When I think back to the moment my daughter was born, I remember the quiet before her first cry – the kind of silence that holds both joy and fear. It was my second C-section, and I was ready for the familiar flood of emotions that comes with meeting your baby for the first time. But as they brought her to me, my heart paused. Her tiny feet were turned inward.
I didn’t understand what I was seeing. No one had mentioned anything unusual during the pregnancy. Most cases of clubfoot are detected around the 20-week ultrasound, but ours went unnoticed. In that moment, I felt confusion, fear, and guilt – like I had failed her before we even began.
The word “clubfoot” entered our lives with so many unknowns. I found myself awake at night, reading everything I could about the condition. That’s how I learned about the Ponseti method – a treatment that involves serial casting, a small procedure to release the Achilles tendon, and then wearing boots and a connecting bar to hold the corrected position. It sounded clinical, but in practice, it was deeply emotional.
At just three weeks old, my baby received her first cast. I sat there, singing softly as the doctor molded it around her tiny legs. Week after week, the casts were changed, each one bringing us closer to her first real steps. When the tenotomy came, and later the boots and bar, the hardest part began – watching her cry, trying to comfort her, and feeling powerless to make it easier.
There’s a quiet kind of strength that grows in parents of children with medical needs. It’s the strength of loving fiercely, even when you don’t have all the answers. And it’s the strength of learning, over time, that you’re not alone.
Through online groups and late-night messages with other parents, I found community. People who understood the frustration of changing diapers around medical equipment or finding pajamas that fit over braces. Parents who shared both their heartbreak and their hope. That connection changed everything for me.
One night, after struggling again to dress my daughter around her boots and bar, I realized something: the clothing we needed simply didn’t exist. That moment of exhaustion turned into inspiration. I started sketching ideas on paper – ways to make pajamas easier for parents like me. I wasn’t a designer or a businessperson; I was just a mom who saw a problem that needed a solution.
At first, it was just me – one parent with a sewing kit, prototypes, and a dream. I wanted to create adaptive baby clothing that made dressing easier for parents and more comfortable for babies wearing the boots and bar. Over time, those sketches became LittleClubbers Apparel – a small but meaningful step toward inclusion.
Our designs feature thoughtful details, like double zippers in unique positions for quick diaper changes, easy access for brace connections, and wider openings to simplify dressing. But more than clothing, LittleClubbers is about community – about making sure families like ours feel seen, supported, and celebrated from day one.
Because here’s the truth: clubfoot may change how your baby’s feet begin their journey, but it doesn’t define where they’ll go.
Today, my daughter runs, climbs, and dances just like any other child. Her strength continues to inspire me every single day. And while our family’s journey began with fear, it has evolved into something beautiful – a story of resilience, love, and purpose.
If you’re a parent just beginning the clubfoot journey, I want you to know this: it’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to cry. But take the pictures – of those tiny curled feet, the first cast, the first brace. One day, you’ll look back and realize how far your child has come, how far you’ve come, and how this unexpected path shaped something extraordinary in both of you.
Through LittleClubbers Apparel, I hope to keep building more than a brand –I want to nurture awareness and community. To show that even when life takes an unexpected turn, there is room to create something meaningful.
Because sometimes, the hardest moments lead us to our true purpose.
Mariangel Pulido
