9 Things You Should Be Looking for in your Child’s Feet

Taking care of your feet is usually something we do when we are adults, usually when we are in our later 40’s or later or even when we’re getting older and we feel our body aches more. But taking care of our feet is something we should do right from childhood. Parents should be making a habit of checking their children’s feet and making sure that everything is healthy in that aspect.

The feet are very important because it supports the entire body from the body. It carries you upright and brings you everywhere you need to go. As with anything, if you don’t take care of it or maintain it early on, problems can arise when it might be too late to fix them.

Here are some of the things parents should watch out for when checking the health of their child’s feet.

Flat feet

One of the things that can be easier to catch is the walking pattern of your child. Children’s feet are different from adults’ because, with children running and jumping around a lot of the time, their feet could be flatter, which is a big help with shock absorption. It is not usually a bad thing or anything to worry about as it can develop as a child grow older, but it can turn out to be painful.

Tripping

Children trip all the time. Being active, with them jumping and running around everywhere, it is expected that they will trip every so often. But tripping can be caused by other things. It may also be caused by muscles that are weaker or they may have joints that aren’t able to support their body well.

Intoes

Intoeing happens with relation to their hips, knees, and feet. It could be due to the delivery conditions of the child and their physical development. Being treated for this would mean that the child would have some things done related to their posture. Certain exercises would be recommended and they could even be required to change their footwear.

Toe Walking

Tiptoeing or toe walking is something that children do often, especially when they’re smaller and want to reach higher things. But walking this way all the time, always on their toes and their heels not touching the ground, may be a sign of something more serious. Certain causes could include muscular dystrophy, autism, cerebral palsy, or other developmental issues. A sign of this could be tightness or pain in their calf muscles.

Ingrown nails

Adults are the ones who usually suffer with this. It’s not common with children, but it can still happen. When it does, it could be because of trauma to the nail, like when your child accidentally stubs their toe or when their nails aren’t cut properly or it could even be due to improper footwear. This may be easy to spot because your child would complain of having a painful toe.

Warts

Children are less immune to the human papillomavirus, which causes warts. They can have this when they go swimming often, wherein the area would be constantly wet and warm.

Growth Pains

Children’s growth goes very quickly. This is why we are often surprised when it feels like children grow taller so fast. This is normal because children usually have growth spurts. These growth spurts, though, may be painful at times. Just imagine a child’s body growing, with all its parts doing its best to keep up with each other in order to grow in the same way and same size. Part of this growth is the feet and legs, which can have pain because children move around a lot. Anticipating these growth spurts can help parents ensure that when they do have pain, they are ready with remedies like gentle massages or gentle stretching.

Growth Plates

Growth plates, or Osteochondroses, usually occur with children who do a lot of sports, usually ones that involve a lot of jumping and running. The most common of these conditions is the Sever’s Disease. This is where the heel’s growth plate causes problems. Osgood’s Schlatter’s, meanwhile, occurs in the knees; Kohler’s occurs in the navicular; and Iselin’s is involved with the foot.

Having proper footwear

Giving children proper footwear may be the most basic and the simplest thing parents could do to take care of their children’s feet. More often than not, most children are made to wear shoes that aren’t the right size for them; they’re usually either too small or too big. While not always, this type of thing usually occurs in families that have many children because it is easier and more affordable to pass down shoes to several children, instead of buying them new ones. This may be good for the short term, but their long term effects may not be. Improper footwear may cause problems for children while they are growing up and may affect their feet when they are older. The best thing parents can do is measure their child and buy shoes that are fitted especially for them. The usual rule is that there should be 1 to 1.5 cm of space between the big toe and the end of the shoe. This allows for movement, but also supports the feet well.

Children’s feet should be a priority at a very young age. Just imagine not taking care of the thing that supports your entire body. Later on, it could cause more problems, and it’s always better to be safe than sorry. To get more valuable insights, check out this informative article.