tip toe walking and failure to weight bare

[vicki35]

Hi
Apologies for the long post but I am hoping that someone out there may have some advice for me as so far I seem to be the only parent that has experienced this!!

I have an 18 month old boy, who started to walk at 14 months and has always walked on his tip toes. In fact, he runs on his tip toes rather than walks and as a result has lousy balance and even when standing still staggers about. He can put his feet down flat when standing but is more usually on his tip toes. It has concerned me but health visitor and gp said he would grow out of it but I should get him to walk slower!?!

Anyway, the real concern is that about 10 days ago I noticed he was crawling raher than walking, I tried to get him to stabd and walk but he could not weight bear on his right leg. I checked him over, no swelling, no pain etc but his foot from his ankle just sort of hung there as though he was a lame animal and his right foot sickled inwards. I was just about to run him to A and E when he just got up and started walking again. This has now continued for 10 days. He loses use of his right foot once or twice a day for anything between 10 mins to an hour and a half but then just jumps up and carrys on as usual ( albeit on his tip toes) I have been to the GP who said just massage his foot/leg when it happens ( of course he never has an "episode" when I take him to see anyone) so I went to an oesteopath who was baffled and said get a referral to a paediatrician. My son doesn't appear in pain when it happens but i am really worried - he is not normal for him to lose use of his foot in this way and I don't seem to be getting anywhere with the GP/Health visitor and no one seems to have ever heard of anything similar before. Family are guessing at things such as a trapped nerve right up to infant arthritis!!! Any advice/comments would be gratefully received. Thanks

Oh bugger. Do try to escalate this (but don't be afraid to try locum GPs, who may have the breadth of experience to spot a rare condition).

My DS is a bit of a tippytoe walker, but at the moment has rather stiff-soled shoes, in which he finds it difficut to tip-toe. Maybe this might help enforce flat-footed walking at least some of the time? Sainsbury's do wellies for £3.

Hi, I do remember a little polish girl at a toddler group I went to having this problem. Or similar. She was around 2 yrs old and going on from there. I remember her constantly walking on her tip toes, but not aware of the loss of use of foot. This seemed to go on for a while, 6 months or more. She had an operation on the tendons in her ankles which they thought were shortened. They weren't sure if they were short and causing the tippy toe walking or short because of the tip toe walking. I'm afraid the family then moved so I don't know what happened after that! Persevere with the Gp.I imagine they will always say wait and see, because it may be something that will pass. But if it doesn't then they need to know, and you need to be referred. Go back to your GP. Good luck.