I was wondering if someone can help me. I have just purchased the Hands and Feet Casting Made Simple – DVD which might help but a bit of extra help can never go astray.

I have tried to cast my baby’s hand and feet on several occasions and I have only been successful with one hand. I have tried to use glad wrap around the hand and foot and I have also tried to cast her hand and foot in a container, but I either seem to get it everywhere or my daughter moves her fingers too much and I end up with a big mess, or she screems at me trying to hold her hand in the container. What am I doing wrong? Can you please help me out with some handy hits, as the cost of the alginate is starting to hurt. (I'm using a dental grade alginate with 3 minute set time)

WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?


Your help would be greatly appreciated.

When I took a lifecasting workshop we were told never do children between the ages of 6 months to 5 years old. They just won't sit still long enough. If your child is in this area about your only option might be attempting to do the proceedure, feet or hands, while they're sleeping. Of course you risk waking them up.

Having just watched the casting hands and feet DVD from ArtMolds and doing a hand and foot cast of my friends 7 week old baby girl on the weekend, I'll pass on our experience.

First a question. Do you have anyone to help you hold the baby while you make the mold?

We basicly followed the procedure in the DVD step by step. We made the hand mold first. The babies mother was holding the baby upright, as in the video, and we smeared some of the alginate on the babies hand first. At this point she waved her arm and put alginate on her mothers top. We quickly put the babies hand in a small plastic container with the alginate. At this point she did try to take it out and did start crying, but her mother jiggled her up and down a bit and we jiggled the mold container while holding her hand in it. After a while the baby stopped crying and settled down and stopped moving. By the time the alginate set all was fine. We left the mold on her hand a further minute or so to make sure the alginate had fully set, and then released the alginate at the top of the mold from her arm by pulling it back from the skin a little with my finger. After that we just let the baby move her arm a bit which let air in down the side of the mold. When the mold had released all around the arm, I gave a light pull on the container and the hand came out easily.

We used Hollywood impressions alginate from ArtMolds. It is fast setting like the dental alginate you use, but even waiting 2 min for it to set with a baby crying can seem like forever.

We did basicly the same for the foot, except this time the father held the baby. For the foot there was no crying or struggling as I think she feel asleep. I have heard others say it is good to try making a mold of babies when they are asleep.

Anyway both molds turned out perfectly and the cast pieces look great, not to mention very cute.

I'll put some pictures of them on our website soon.

Hope that helps.

Regards
Ray Hope
www.bimmortal.com

One additional possible consideration: time how long it takes for your alginate to start setting up. When you make another attempt wait until about 30 seconds before that time to insert the childs foot or hand. There'll be a much shorter amount of time needed to have the child stay still.