4 year old walking on toes

[SewingMama77]

My LO has got into the habit of toe walking & we can't seem to get him to stop. Is under paediatric Physio, but they have just given exercises which have helped his flexibility but haven't stopped it & told me it is a habit rather than any tendon issues. He starts school September, so I'm desperate to break the habit! He is very stubborn & often doesn't realise he's doing it. Anyone with similar experiences?

I work in a school with a boy who does this, but he has reduced it over time. He is autistic too and I wondered if your LO has any other tendencies which may be linked to this at all? The boy seems to manage walking and has well defined muscles as you would expect.

My son did this and is not autistic. Grew out of it but had physio as well. There's a physical reason for it. Sorry, can't remember the medical term. Hes's all grown up and fine now, but it used to cause him considerable pain after sports etc. physio gave him inserts for his shoes. HTH

No he has no autism and is developing well in every other way. Thank you cleanthatroomnow makes me feel better that someone else has just grown out of it. Feel like it could go on forever!

My brother walked on his toes, shortened tendons (don't ever have him playing squash/tennis seriously!). Even if it is habit now it has its cause in a physical reason.

My brother had physio. We were told in the end that it would stop naturally when he grew up and his weight forced his heels down. It did get better over time but he still walks more on the balls of his feet (watch men walking and you will see a few who do this!) and when he has his shoes off at home he still goes up onto his toes. He is over 6ft so I find it funny.

But I am not aware he was ever teased or bullied for it.

Yes I have noticed a few 'bouncy' walks around!! The physio did say it was because his bones were growing quicker than his muscles stretched to match, so that's what made it more comfy on his toes, but now I think it's more habit. Hopefully it will ease down a bit as he gets older, as at the moment he goes right up on them!

My son walked on his toes and grew out of it. In fact he didn't just walk on his toes, but walked on the points of his toes. My son isn't autistic.

Toe walking is surprisingly common.

"He starts school September, so I'm desperate to break the habit! He is very stubborn & often doesn't realise he's doing it. Anyone with similar experiences? sad"

My son never got bullied for toewalking. I suggest you stop nagging him. As children get heavier they find harder to walk on their toes. It one of those things that bothers the parents more than the children.

my 6 year old does this and is under a paed rheumatologist who has diagnosed hypermobiliy syndrome aka ehlers danlos (not severe form) which is a genetic abnormality of connective tissue which makes people "double jointed". His hands and fingers and feet are particularly floppy and wobbly (he can bend his fingers and thumbs right back to touch his hand). the consultant says that most children who toe walk do so because their ankles are too floppy and so the wobble more when they learn to walk and so tip toe to stabilise themselves and it becomes a habit. Does he seem like he could be " double jointed " at all?

he is to have physio and shoe inserts which is all they can do and excercise programs to build up his muscle strength to support his flexible joints.

forago thats interesting as my son has weird tendons and had terrible problems holding a pencil.

My son at the age of 12 cannot bend down to tie his shoe laces. Do you think we should ask to go back to the child physio.

DD (9) does this. She was referred when in infants to see the musculoskeletal physio (or something like that). I was told that as long as she CAN put her feet flat then we shouldn't worry. She therefore has to do ballet as at least there I know she has to have her feet flat!

My niece is in her 20s and still does it too.

I haven't noticed any evidence of him being double jointed, but will look into that, thanks. The toe walking generally just makes him quite clumsy & he falls over quite a bit.

reallytired difficulty holding a pencil and writing is very common with hyper mobility also - that's why we got it checkedreally, my son is in y1 and with the extra writing was really struggling. at times the pencil would ping out of his hands! they doctor made the school stop trying to correct his grip and wrote a letter saying let him hold the pencil however he wants and that has helped. he also has hand excercise balls in his shorts pocket all day to do exercises to build up his hand strength.

I think toe walking with hyper mobile joints should always be checked out. Even with mild Ehlers danlos there can be a lot of problems with muscle weakness and issues later on as an adult like arthritis. there is also a link with anxiety issues which it is good to be aware of. however, I don't know whether toe walking on its own without any obviously hyper mobility can be classed as normal. Our specialist says not. might be worth getting it checked?

My niece was like this. She is now 16 and fine. She stopped toe walking when she was about 6 or 7 I think. Hers started earlier and she was eventually diagnosed with a very slight case of cerebral palsy - her mum had placenta previa and a big bleed at 25 weeks, which the doctors think may have caused the baby to lack oxygen for a bit. Anyway, she actually had some Botox therapy which really helped. I also remember the parents having to remind her constantly to "walk on your soles" to help her brain get into the habit.

I am an adult who toe-walks. Not all the time, I can get my feet flat, but if I'm not wearing shoes, I will toe-walk about 50% of the time. In soft shoes it's about 20% of the time, and I don't in leather shoes of boots. I can only climb stairs barefoot on my toes. In my case it is because I have very tight Achilles' tendons.

I do ballet, where it's a useful skill.

forago my son saw an NHS occupational therapist. She taught him a slightly different grip to the traditional tripod grip. She changed Ds grip as it was causing him pain and his hand writing was on the 2nd centile.

We never got a diagnosis. I have no idea if ds was tested for Ehlers danlos as he had a battery of blood tests. I worried myself silly as our community paediatrian refused point blank to tell me what she was testing for which made me even more scared.

Its interesting what you say about anxiety as my son does suffer from anxiety.

I will look into that, thanks. He can put his feet flat on the floor, but just resorts to toes as a default, especially when he's tired. He seems okay with holding pencils crayons/pencils when drawing as that's one of his favourite things to do.

ReallyTired mine seems to be showing signs of that too :(. was good for us to get the diagnosis as now we are aware of it and can look out for issues in the future. I asked him what we should do about a genetic predisposition to anxiety and he said teach him coping techniques from a young age - eg yoga, meditation, mindfulness and CBT if he needs it. I won't go into details here as ours is a specific case and may be completely different to just toe walking, but the doctor we saw had a really good explanation about why hyper mobility and anxiety can go together, please feel free to pm me for info.

I wouldn't panic about toe walking but equally I wouldn't necessarily minimise it. I was quite shocked at the degree of muscle weakness my son had when tested. but I think this is all a symptom of the hyper mobility so if he doesn't have that its possibly not the same issue.