Children’s flat feet and valgus: 5 important new facts

Hel­lo dear advanced par­ents! My name is Sylkin Vik­tor Igore­vich. I am an ortho­pe­dic podi­a­trist and for the last two years I have been active­ly study­ing top­i­cal prob­lems of the chil­dren’s foot. I am a mem­ber of the Podi­a­tr Asso­ci­a­tion in Moscow. I work in Bar­naul. I will try to briefly describe impor­tant non-stan­dard facts about the chil­dren’s foot that all par­ents should know.

1. Flat feet and slight val­gus (block­age of the foot inward) is a phys­i­o­log­i­cal norm in the first 3 years of a child’s life. This is due to the growth and “twist­ing” of the talus and the pro­nounced devel­op­ment of sub­cu­ta­neous fat.

2. A small val­gus of the knee joints (X‑shaped legs) and varus (O‑shaped legs) of the knee joints is a phys­i­o­log­i­cal noma in chil­dren from 3 to 7 years old due to the dis­pro­por­tion­ate growth of the mus­cles of the low­er leg and thigh. Severe defor­mi­ties require con­sul­ta­tion with an advanced ortho­pe­dist

3. More than 95% of chil­dren’s ortho­pe­dists at an appoint­ment in a chil­dren’s clin­ic in the pres­ence of one of the above “devi­a­tions” in a child pre­scribe hard ortho­pe­dic insoles (sup­pos­ed­ly to main­tain the arch) and hard ortho­pe­dic shoes (sup­pos­ed­ly so that the leg would def­i­nite­ly not col­lapse any­where). These rec­om­men­da­tions are a holdover from the late 1990s, when large man­u­fac­tur­ing firms entered the mar­ket and there was lit­tle to do with research.
4. In fact, the pres­ence of a rigid arch sup­port (lon­gi­tu­di­nal rise) on the insole pre­vents the phys­i­o­log­i­cal low­er­ing of the foot and stim­u­la­tion of the strength­en­ing of the arch mus­cles. And rigid ortho­pe­dic shoes turn off the sta­bi­liz­ers of the foot (per­oneal and tib­ial groups) from the work of the mus­cles, since the high hard heel of the shoe does the work for them. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, I often see par­ents with 12–14 year old chil­dren at the recep­tion, in whom a pro­nounced val­gus block­age of the foot is very like­ly to pass into adult­hood, although they wore hard insoles and ortho shoes all their child­hood. The effec­tive time for cor­rec­tion of any val­gus and flat feet is from 1 to 7 years, after which the cor­rec­tion will most often be inef­fec­tive.
5. If you want to play it safe and be sure that a slight val­gus or phys­i­o­log­i­cal flat feet will def­i­nite­ly pass, use soft insoles com­plete­ly devoid of a frame (it is bet­ter to do this from 1 year to 7 years). This is where EVA insoles come in handy. They gen­tly stim­u­late the arch at every step of the child, giv­ing the mus­cles of the low­er leg and foot the oppor­tu­ni­ty to work hard and grow. This elim­i­nates flat feet and slight val­gus.

Keep in mind: with pro­nounced val­gus (as in the pho­to), you need to con­tact an advanced ortho­pe­dist in your city (look for him in social net­works and read a cou­ple of his posts). A com­bi­na­tion of treat­ments and spe­cial­ists may be need­ed.

Briefly about shoes: choose dimen­sion­al­ly sta­ble shoes (not liq­uid rag ones), with a dimen­sion­al­ly sta­ble heel and flex­i­ble soles. The back should not be high­er than the ankles. And do not for­get to insert the cor­rect soft insoles or semi-insoles into the shoes (for chil­dren from 1 to 3 years old, the prod­uct is below)