flat feet

[Lorien]

Does anyone out there have kids with flat feet? And is it a problem? My 14-month-old has very flat feet and I'm wondering if he will grow out of it, or if i need to do something about it, like make sure that he wears shoes that give good arch support?
Thanks, Lorien

Lorien, I am almost sure that children's feet stay flat until the age of around five. Our son was born with postural talipes and needed some physio to encourage one foot in the correct direction. I asked about flat-footedness (my father and sister have it as adults and you are right to be concerned about it, as knee alignment has been affected by it for both of them) and the physio told me that much before the age of 5 there is no point worrying as the arches are not evident before then.
Although we are suckers for the Start-Rite branding I suspect that any good brand of shoes will help your son keep his balance. I think what is more important is to find a shop with skilled fitters. Don't know where you live but in SE London Pares of Blackheath has queues out of the door because of their years of expertise.
We have found that lace-ups with high ankles were the best shoes for our son. We also took the HV's advice (and Pares too) that a child should only be fitted for his first proper shoes after six weeks on his feet.
Hope this helps.

I think that flat feet in babies and toddlers is quite normal and the feet only look that way because they have those lovely pads of fat on the bottoms. (Aren't they scrumptious?? I could eat them!) You can always check it out with your HV, to put your mind at rest.

Yes SueD, their feet are lovely.

Like a lot of architecture on your body, the arches on your feet come about by one bit developing and pulling on another (the bump on the back of your head, for example, doesn't exist on a new born. You have to use the muscles that lift your head to get it.)

Do try to let your little one go around bare foot as often as possible as they gather and gain so much info that way. Even if their bare feet feel cold, they lose little core temperature through their feet in comparison to the info they gain. If you can see them gripping or pushing in with their toes they are helping the muscles that produce the arches.

Hope you get foot kisses back.

Flat feet is quite normal, it's even a good thing as the fat pads underneath babies feet prevents heat loss! Arch support shoes look nice but don't do alot for the little ones - instead they should stay barefoot as much as possible. They don't even need shoes at all until they are walking. It is important that they fit well though, and they should have support around the back of the foot, like sandals and gym shoes, not flipflops or those slip-on elastic sided boots.

Apparently up to 70% of 4 yr olds have flat feet...my almost 3 yr old ds has feet as flat as pancakes! We were worried too which is how come I found out about it!

So don't panic, it's quite okay!

Thanks for all your advice great to discover that flat feet are run of the mill. And also to unearth more evidence of how small the world is although I now live in Malaysia, I was brought up in Blackheath, of Pares shoe shop fame.

Thanks again, Lorien

Marina- would you mind telling me a bit more about your boy's foot, if you have some time in the next few days? One of my sons is due to have a cast put on his left foot for six weeks, in the hope of encouraging it to turn outwards. His foot turns inward quite markedly. I'm a bit unsure about putting him through this because I can't get much info from the hospital staff about how a "bendy" foot might affect his life in the long term, either physically or in terms of potential teasing etc. At the moment it seems to affect him very little- he walks and runs normally. He's a bit clumsy on occasion but I'm not sure if this is to do with his foot or not- I'm notoriously clumsy so he might just take after me. Like you, the condition runs in our family and both my sister and I wore special boots with a bar across as newborns. When the boys were born I was told these had "gone out of fashion" and feet were now left to straighten naturally. Except he's now 3 and it hasn't...
I just wondered if your little boy was receiving any treatment- you mentioned physiotherapy? Or if you or anyone else knew anything relevant about bendy feet?

On a similar foot-related note has anyone got any ideas on keeping shoes on a 13m old? DD has very triangular feet and her ankles are almost non-existent so shoes slip off, we have already lost one pair of start-rites (you're not the only one buying into that brandidng Marina) and don't want to lose any more.

Scummymummy- not very up to date on my paeds physio, but I've previously treated kiddies with "bendy feet" and used taping to correct positionally, plus taught mums and dads stretching techniques and exercises to encourage the child's foot to straighten. At least with the tape, you encourage continued normal use of the foot whilst maintaining a good anatomical position. I always felt that fixing the foot caused additional problems of joint stiffness because of the rigidity of the plaster. However children have very malleable joints so this could be overcome relatively quickly compared to an adult who went into plaster for 6-8weeks. Perhaps it would be worth asking for a referral to a paeds physio for an assessment and see what they say?

My oldest daughter has feet as flat as ironing boards! She is almost 10 now and has no arch at all.

When she was small she was given some great boots by the physiotherapy department to help correct this. They are called piedro boots and have a built in arch for children with this problem. Come in a range of colours for the style conscious child! As she got older and outgrew the boots she was fitted with special inserts for her own shoes, but these didnt seem to work as well, and is dependent on whether whoever is making them knows what they are doing (or not in my case!)

So now she is at the age she is her physiotherapist referred her to the london foot hospital, who have given her exercises to do daily, but said she doesn't need inserts at the moment unless she starts complaining of foot pain. She is advised to wear trainers or other shoes that grip the whole foot and support it for daily use , and only allowed to have the fancier high heels on very rare special occasions (thank goodness - a bonus for me!).

Walking in sand barefoot is a very good exercise for the arches, as in anything that makes the foot "grip". My daughter also has Irish dancing lessons, which as an aside has increased the strength of her feet, so there should be exercises to do that can be fun as well.

Thanks for that honeybunny- very useful stuff. Sorry I've taken a while to see it.
It's actually the physio who's suggested the plaster and now the deed is done- very fetching blue "plaster caster" now adorns my wee boy's foot! It's now only for 2 weeks initially. Then she suggests a splint at night and some special boots for daytime. What's taping? The physio hasn't mentioned this. Do you think it would be better than what she's suggested?

Scummymummy- basically like elastoplast but not stretchy, so that the foot can be moved into a better position, then taped to hold that new position. Because its not a complete fixation, ie allows a small amount of joint movement, there's less of a tendency to stiffness, and the child is encouraged to continue to use the foot normally. You can stil wear shoes and socks over the top. Its a lot like the strapping you see on footballers/rugby players knees, hands etc to prevent further injury. It can stay on for a couple of days then either reapplied by the physio or mum can be taught to continue to reapply at home. Although I'm a fully fledged physio, my paediatric experience is v old (ie 10yrs+ ago since I did any) so I would hate to say that one way was better than another. But IME I've had good success with strapping adults with foot problems, dropped arches, plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis and sprained ankles etc and therefore would consider it before POP (plaster of paris). It may be worth asking, but as the "deed has been done" I'd see how that works for ds. The special boots are excellent for this kind of thing too. Somebody has already mentioned them on this thread I think. Piedro are the make.