Are My Child's Flatfeet Normal?

We have all heard of the trick of walking on the beach and looking at your footprint in the sand. This is supposed to be a good indicate of whether or not your foot has a good arch or not. If you don’t, most of us don’t think anything of it unless our feet are painful. With children though, it is a completely different story, because as a parent, you are very concerned about your children’s health. You count their fingers and toes when they are born, you notice every scratch on their body and you notice when they first steps if their feet are flat. You will be happy to know though that flatfeet are common in children from 1 year of age to 3 years. So, we will typically not do anything for your child but watch them through their development to see if their feet remain flat or if they take on a proper arch. This is because your child’s bones and cartilage are all forming and have not yet reached their final form.

 If your child’s foot does not correct, it can be a result of incomplete bone maturity, those that have no symptoms and those that get worse over time. Flat foot is a result of many different causes including genetics, obesity, neurological causes or bones that are turned more than typical. Non-invasive treatment options will always be looked at first. One of these techniques is orthoses. Orthoses are devices that can either be custom made for the individual or they can be designed for an average foot type. Sometimes, the over the counter orthoses will work great for a person and will relieve all of their symptoms, but for others, they need the custom made ones that are designed for them to make the pain go away and correct their arches. For a lot of patients, this is all that they need to correct their feet and they will have no further symptoms.

In other people, the orthosis may not work and other techniques need to be considered including casting and possibly surgery. The most important thing is that if your child is over the age of 3 and you notice that they still have flat feet, you should bring them in. If you are in the Newburyport, Billerica, Wilmington, Burlington and Chelmsford Massachusetts  our staff would be more than happy to schedule you and your child to meet with Dr. Wachtel. This way, they can be evaluated and have their foot type corrected before it causes long term problems. It is important that the doctor determine which type of treatment is best so that your child can receive the treatment necessary for their condition.