8 year old ds walks with feet turned in - hip problem?

[Wallace]

I have posted about this before, but I can't find the thread. Ds1 (8) feet turn in when he walks, especially his left.

Anyway, I finally got round to taking ds1 to the doctor. When she examined him at first she thought that his left hip was stiffer than his right, and this may be causing it. Then she ummed and ahhed and wasn't really sure if it is stiffer. She is thinking of referring him to orthopaedics, but has reffered him to physio first to see what they think.

She says that if there is nothing wrong with his hip then it is just loose hip joints causing his feet to turn in when he walks.

Anyone have any experience or information to share? Could it be a hip abnormality causing this?

My son has a problem with his hips (Multiple Epiphyseal Dysplasia)which makes his left foot turn out as he walks. So from my experience it could be a hip problem.
I would push for orthopaedics as they will be able to diagnose the problem.
I would also be very pleased too see a physio. My son has had quite a few sessions with one locally that have really helped. From a physio's point of view in a way it does not matter what theproblem is, they are there to try to get the muscles etc working better. Well that is my experience anyway.
Hope some of this makes sense, have vomitting one year old upstairs.
Good Luck

Thank you. I just googled it hip and intoeing and from what I have read sofar it does sound probable.

The physio referral may take a couple of weeks, but my dh is having a knee operation on Monday and is going to ask his friendly orthopaedic surgeon for advice

Meant to say sympathies with vomiting baby!

bupm

Hope op goes well. Well you be able to see a pediatric (sp?) physio, cos they are the best, and in our area the wait time was very short.

Thanks for sympathy. Baby asleep now, sick all the way from Wales to London. Hope you find someone elsw with experience to help you.

Hope your baby has stopped being sick now, that must have been horrible!

I don't know if there is a paediatric physio in our area, I'll have to ask. We do live in a very small place so it is unlikely.

my dd saw a podiatrist who gave her loads of exercises and an insole, suggested trampoling and swimming.
it wasnt a hip problem, it was a muscular.

did not do the exercises very much ...
one of which was toe exercises, picking up a pen with her curled toes,which she found difficult.

Someone like an osteopath or chiropracter may be able to help also.

A friend of mine had a similar problem with her LO and told the doctor that she noticed it when walking behind LO and his advice was not to walk behind her!!!

I have also noticed that ds2 age 9 turns his left foot in when walking, I feel really silly now as I thought it was just a bad habit he'd developed.
Ds2 does a lot of different sports so it doesn't seem to hamper him at all, but after reading this I think that maybe I should take him to the doctors to get checked out.

get it checked out.

dd1 was 2.5 when we started noticing problems, our GP said it would right itself by age 7 and not to worry.

I persisted and got the HV to refer us to podiatry. we had insoles made but weren't seeing any improvment, GP still wouldn't listen.

Thankfully, in august dd1 was uncoperative with the podiatrist and he decided that maybe there was something neurologically going on and said he'd write to GP and ask for a referral to neurologist. At last we were getting into the system.

we got the neurology referral, had assessment and a MRI in december - all was clear and neruologist made GP refer to Orthopedics.

Went for assessment with Orthos on wednesday - DD1 (now 4.10) will be wearing ortho boots and night splints for approx 2yrs. Just waiting for them to be made now.

i was told same, would right itself by age 7,
which it didnt.
fraid am a bit laxer altogether,
just went with the insoles and exercises.

they were even noticing in clarks.

should say DD1's feet turn in. ortho assessment said there wasn't anything wrong with her hips.

Thanks for all htis info.

makealist - don't feel silly, it was ds1's teacher that suggested we take him to the doctor because the PE teacher noticed.

From what I have been reading (google!) there are three cause of in-toeing: mis-shapen feet, lower leg, or hips. Pretty sure it must be the hips for ds because it didn't start until he was a bit older.