Children with flat feet?

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Author

Dr Katie Willy - Osteopath

Why does my kid have flat feet?

It’s a great question and one that many parents worry about.

Firstly, please don’t worry.

Feet are able to be worked out in terms of why they flatten. And they can be taught to hold a more familiar shape again whether it’s one foot or both feet.

This does not require the use of orthotics with the work we do.

Instead it requires a thorough history of your child to find out why their feet are flat.

Why is their HISTORY most important?

There are a number of possibilities we explore in terms of why feet flatten.

Interestingly (we think) it is about what has happened to this little body in front of us.

Our line of questioning will be:

What fractures, injuries has your child experienced anywhere in the body?
Has your child had ANY surgery anywhere?
Any foot injuries? (inc. stubbed toes, standing on nails/pins, cuts and scars)
Birth history information. Use of forceps or ventouse (vacuum)? Any marking on the body when born (face, torso)?

These are the majority of possible incidents that we have worked with in terms of children with flat feet. Knowing where and how joints elsewhere in the body interact with the feet in a “domino effect”, means we can explain the cascade of events to you and a plan to unravel the adaptions (compensations).

Plantar Fascia | Foot Pain | Flat Feet | Osteopathy | Kew

How can you teach feet to NOT be flat?

The story goes like this.

The body is what’s called a closed system.

It has everything it requires built into it from how to digest food, pump blood, breathe as well as how to move it’s joints with the best efficiency available.

The best efficiency is where we look closer with our clients. Flat feet are needed to disperse body weight when we walk. They are a normal pattern in the feet. But issues occur when the body doesn’t know how to move back into an arched position. This can occur when the body has had to compensate and therefore chosen to restrict movement in another area of the body. That’s where that detailed history comes in.

It points our practitioners to particular regions for assessment and if indicated, movement practice to re-train the affected area. Our job is to piece together the cascade of events that eventuated in flat feet. Then we can teach how to arch the feet again with the whole body as a unit.

And just for the record…it’s not hereditary, it may have been copied by the child watching the parent walking but not genetically handed to your child. So don’t blame yourself (or your partner)!!