feet

I do not have flat feet. If anything, my arch is incredibly high and my friends complained that we couldn’t borrow each others’ shoes because of it. I also tend to underpronate which I didn’t really notice until college. So when Troy and I started dating and he wore orthotics, I totally thought it was an old man thing.

Last month, Troy suggested we take the girls to the podiatrist. I get being overzealous about your kid’s health, but exactly how many pediatric podiatrists are there?

He said that he noticed that Z’s ankles were crumbling in when she walked and that’s a sign of flat feet. A’s feet also were a bit weird; they curved inward. My little pigeon toe! My MIL also worked as an x-ray tech in a podiatrist’s office, and she reconfirmed they definitely needed to go.

I didn’t think this was a big deal, since they were still growing and neither of them seemed fully “in their body” yet. But when I looked at videos of Z walking in flip flops, it was very clear. Similarly, in videos of A running, she looked a bit “floppy” for lack of a better word. To the podiatrist we go!

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Toe-walking is exactly how it sounds, when a child primarily walks on the balls of their feet or on their toes, instead of using their whole foot. This is typical when a child is learning to walk independently. Children usually outgrow it before 3, as they develop a consistent stride and heel strike.

However, some children continue to toe-walk for no immediate reason at all. This is known as idiopathic toe-walking. This means that, though a child frequently walks and balances on their toes, they can still physically keep up with their peers, walk with straight knees, and can stand with their feet flat on the ground. Idiopathic toe-walking has been estimated to occur in 7% to 24% of the childhood population.

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