Does your child walk funny?

The gait in children from one year to two is just as different as their characters. Most people start walking, turning their feet outwards, as this position improves stability. Then, when you begin to worry about your feet turned out, the child replaces one concern for the others and turns their feet inside. You can calmly brush aside the advice of your mother to reduce the child to an orthopedic surgeon. In most children, the legs and feet are straightened by themselves by the age of three.

Fingers inside. In the , the first two years of life, almost all children turn their toes inward. This is due to two reasons:

• Normal bending of the legs left after the fetal stay in the uterus.

• Normal flat feet. The foot is rarely formed until the age of three. To compensate, children when walking turn the foot inside, so as to form a vault and better distribute the weight of their body.

Here is a graph of normal development of feet and legs:

• Varus knee( O-shaped curvature of legs, "feet with a wheel") from birth to three years;

• outstretched toes, like a ballerina, when the child begins to walk;

• Inverted toes from eighteen months to two or three years;

• Walking on the legs turned right after reaching the age of three;

• valgus knee( X-shaped curvature of legs, "legs crossed"), from three years to adolescence

If your child runs and does not stumble, do not worry about your feet turned inwards. They must straighten themselves. But if your child stumbles more and more, orthopedic treatment may be necessary. In all children up to two years, the toes are inward. The

is usually held starting from about eighteen or twenty-four months.(The treatment usually consists of using a staple that is inserted between the special shoes to keep the feet in the inverted position, the staple is inserted for the duration of sleep.)

In addition to turning the inside of the shin, which in medical science is known as eversion of the tibia( i.e., turningthe largest bone of the shin), another reason that the toes look inward is the inward turn of the femur. That's how to distinguish one from another. See how your child is worth. If the knee cups look strictly forward,

Fig. A. The position of the embryo during sleep.

Fig. D. With crossed Fig. D. With extended forward

feet. kicks.

turnout stop is explained by the turn of the shins. If the knee cups look at each other, this is the turn of the femur.

If your child is sleeping and sitting in the right position, you will reduce the risk of both deformities.

• The proverb "As a twig, so the tree will grow up" definitely refers to children's legs. Do not let your child sleep in the embryo position( Figure A).If the child does not manage to wean from this position, sew together the leggings of pajamas.

• Try not to allow your child to put his feet and feet under him when he sits: this exacerbates the inverting of the inside of the tibia( see Figure B).

Fig. B. Seated position of

with

foot resting under it.

Fig. B. W-shaped posture.

• To reduce the inward turn of the femur, disaccustom your child to sit in a W-shaped posture( Figure B), and accustom instead to sit with crossed legs( Figure D) or legs extended forward( figure D).

Flat feet. These legs are flat, like flat cakes, soles, most likely, not for long will remain so. Usually at the age of three years a foot arch is formed. If platypodia is observed after three years, treatment may or may not be required. Here's how to determine if platypodia is a disease. Stand behind the child and watch him stand barefoot on a hard surface. Draw a line along the Achilles tendon or insert a ruler, to the very floor. If this line passes exactly perpendicular to the floor, the flatfoot, as a rule, does not bother the child, and no treatment is required. If the line is tilted inward( there is a so-called pronation), your child can be helped by orthopedic liners - plastic devices that are embedded in regular shoes. They support the arch of the foot and heel and level the bones of the shank( tibial and fibular) and the talus bone in one line. Although there are disagreements, part of the orthopedists believes that treating a child with a strong pronation with orthopedic liners from about

of three years old and up to seven years can reduce leg pain and the risk of deformation of bones and joints thereafter.

Walking on the toes. Most children from one year to two go through the period of walking on the toes, God knows why! As a rule, it's a habit or a child is just fooling around. If this habit does not go away, it is necessary that your doctor examine the muscles of your child's calf and Achilles tendon to determine if they are tightened.

If a child limps and walks weird. It is very important to notice unusual features of your child's gait and to report them to the doctor. The limping of a child should always be taken seriously and deserves a full medical examination. If your child is walking strange( for example, waddling, like a duck, or dragging one leg), report your observations to the child's doctor.

If the child does not want to walk. If your child, who previously walked perfectly normally, suddenly refuses to walk, which happens sometimes, tell the child's doctor. Pay attention to the following:

• Can you recall anything that could cause a failure to walk, such as trauma or fear after a recent fall? Record in detail everything that happened before the child announced a sit-in strike.

• Perform an inspection. Undress the child. Examine and feel his feet and feet in search of bruising, redness, swelling and painful areas, gently pressing on all bones, including the bones of the foot. Compare one leg to the other;move the hip, knee and ankle joints. Does the child frown at the pain when you do this? Examine the soles of your feet and gently feel them in search of splinters or splinters of glass.

• Is the child sick? Did he have an inexplicable rise in temperature?

• Is there any recent traumatic event for the psyche?

Take the child( and your records) to a doctor for a comprehensive examination.

Growth pain. The development of the body does not cause pain, at least physical. Most orthopedists consider the pain of growth, or growth disease, a myth. These pains invariably occur at night and wake the child who complains: "My legs hurt."These pains subside after the massage of the legs and pass with age. I believe that in many cases these pains are explained by the muscle sprains that occurred in

. To determine if the platypodia is a problem, take a look at the line of the

Achilles tendon when your child is standing on a hard surface. The inclined line

( left) may indicate the need for

to use orthopedic

liners;a straight line passing

perpendicular to the floor plane( right),

usually indicates that no

treatment is needed.

still during the day, while jumping and running without rest. In addition, I watched children who had pains after orthopedic liners were inserted into their shoes, which remove some of the load from the leg muscles when standing and walking, especially if the child has a flat-footed pronation.