Ballerina syndrome, walking on tip toes

[Twinsplusonesurprise]

My 2.5yo DD, one of twins, constantly walks on tip toes. She can put her feet down and will do so if I nag nag nag but I would have to say "feet down!" literally every 20 seconds.
It doesn't matter where we are or what we 're doing. Even when she's talking, drawing etc, activities that usually mean standing still, she will be up on her tip toes staggering around. So she falls over ALL the time.
Anyone have any experience of this and how do I get her to stand and walk normally?!

thanks random. it was just that shock of omg they want to put my little girl in below the knee casts because I knew she toe walked and didn't do anything about it! She's doing well now, the casts have greatly improved the range she has and it looks promising that the habit may be broken too, no amount of nagging could stop her before!

"God Reallytired that sounds painful for him - and you. Glad he is ok now. "

My son never had any really painful treatments. He used to crawl every where at the age of two and wasn't bothered in the slightest. The nhs tries less evasive treatments before the age of five years old. My son was very lucky in that stretching excerises and orthorics worked at the age of two.

I imagine that sapphirestar dd tried other treatments before the physio recommended serial casting.

Nope reallytired, dd had been left long enough and was bad enough that serial casting was the first thing they suggested! two senior and one junior physio agreed it was best for her.

it's why I'm wary of the 'oh they grow out of it' attitude.

sapphirestar I feel sad that your daugher didn't get the same treatment as children in our area. In our area a child who toe walks would be reviewed every six months to see that tightness in tendons was not getting worse.

I have a friend in Luton whose son had surgery at the age of seven because he was too old for less evasive treatments. He was in a wheelchair for several weeks after the op.

I think that the majority of children do outgrow toe walking without intervention. I think that stretching excercises can make a difference with a young child, but it has to be done young. It seems silly to me for a physio not to show parents how to do stretches on their toewalking child.

Our physio did show us stretching exercises, but as dd was 5 when she was first seen she'd already had chance to do 4 years worth of damage to her tendons. I agree that if spotted and seen to in younger children keeping an eye through regular reviews and exercises is probably enough, as will hopefully be the case with the op as her dd is still only 2yo.
I'd just left it too late with my dd, her tendons were very tight to the point where one foot couldn't be pushed flat by the physio.

Surgery would have been the next option if casting didn't work, thankfully she responded well. I'm surprised 7yo was classed as too old for casts though! Luckily, at worst the casting was just a bit of a hassle. She could do everything as normal, including PE but bath time was challenging! Dd enjoyed going to school each week with fresh casts for her friends to draw on and she had no pain at all so don't feel too sad for us. It's all worked out in the end.

My dd has walked on tip toes all her life, she is now 14. We were given orthotic insoles but they didn't work. We were told she'd grow out of it by every health care professional!

For my dd it's related to her AS. It hasn't caused any problems except for people staring at her feet and people suggesting she take up ballet

On reflection I wish I'd pushed more for treatment. She wants to walk "properly" now but finds it very difficult to put her feet down.

I did this - it was just more comfortable.

I grew out of it!