Children & feet. Let’s explore the facts regarding children’s feet.
Brainstorming questions for all moms????????
Have you spent 5 minutes from your hectic schedule to observe your child’s feet?
Have you seen your child standing or walking?
If yes, then do you know what to observe?
Which observations require professional consultation & which not?????
Have you ever ignored your child complaining about his feet & leg.?
Let’s move towards answers If your little one is your future Empire, then his feet are the pillars of it.
Make pillar strong today & get great empire tomorrow…..
Ignoring children’s feet problems are not always your fault. Even if you have noticed, sometimes your well wishers make you convince mentioning “he is just a child & will grow out of it”. This phrase is responsible for a lot of adult & adolescent foot troubles. Yes, they can grow out of it. But it is really impossible to tell that who will grow and who will not. Unfortunately, many time children don’t grow out of it. You can definitely wait up to age 5 as up to this age,there are chances to develop an arch. We also recommend that we should not disturb their growing alignment up to age of 5.
Many times kids can’t verbalize their complaints and it’s up to the parent to pickup on any gait abnormalities. Moms never ignore when you think ‘something is wrong’. Let’s get some ideas how to observe kid’s feet.
Hint for your observation:::
- Frequent foot sprain
- Frequent falling while playing/walking
- Tired aching legs & feet at the end of the day. (Sometime kids can’t verbalize only tells you to press their feet/legs)
- Notable to participate in any particular sports/activities. (Kid always stand back insports activities & not taking interest in any sports activity as kid may not be able to cope up with that.)
- Kid’s shoes showing any uneven wear pattern.
- Falling inner arch
- Very high arch
- Both toes looking opposite side
- Any bulge or bony growth on inner aspect of base of great toe.
- Toes abnormally curved
- Ingrown or outgrown toe nails.
- Any discoloration of toe nails.
- Shape of foot resembles kidney beans or banana
- Toe standing & heel off the floor
- Outer border of feet off the floor
- Both knees looking each other like friends
- Both knees behaving like enemies-looking opposite side.
- Dry hard areas (corn & calluses)on sole of foot.
- Abnormal bulging on inner/outer aspect of ankle.
- Standing with putting more weight on one leg than other one.
- Limping while walking.
- Child walking irregular resembling one leg shorter or longer.
- Kids walking with toe-in or toe-out
All above mentioned issues in kids are attributed to their faulty bio-mechanical alignment.
Pediatrics may be very busy in solving other body problems and will not be able to give enough time to concentrate on your angle’s feet. Orthopedics are very busy in surgeries. Then who will be the best doctor looking for foot problems?
Answer:Podiatrist. But unfortunately we are quite late to practice these modern sciences in India. Till date there is no podiatry field in India. So the next best professional to look out at any bio-mechanics alignment problems, are physiotherapists.
Now what is the solution of faulty bio-mechanical alignment?
- Orthotics: In form of corrective insoles. They will keep feet in proper alignment and finally whole body alignment will be corrected.
- Posture correction : To reinforce the proper alignment.
- Exercise training : For training of muscles who have already suffered because of faulty alignment. (weakened or tight muscles)
- What are the benefits that your child will get after correction bio-mechanical faulty alignment?
- Improve fitness
- Enhance performance in sports activities.
- Reduce chances ofsports related injuries like sprains, muscle tears etc
- Further deformation of biomechanical alignment
- Prevention from converting faulty alignment into structural deformities.
- Can get rid of tired aching feeling
- Pain free life
- Prevent early wear& tear in other joints like knee, hip, spine etc. in later stage of life.
So now all moms, Are you ready to strengthen pillars of your future Empire? You know lots of things about your angel’s feet? So for what are you waiting now?Take your first step today only. Moms stick to your guns if you think something’s wrong.