How to choose children’s orthopedic shoes

Straight­away. This post is not about all ortho­pe­dic shoes, but only about the type that has a high back. By the way, now she is almost all like that.

Now chil­dren’s ortho­pe­dic shoes are pre­scribed for almost all chil­dren with the slight­est sus­pi­cion of foot defor­mi­ty. Par­ents, on the oth­er hand, go to the store and buy the “most reli­able” option, so that every­thing is def­i­nite­ly OK.

Ortho­pe­dic shoes in all their glo­ry (with a high back and a hard beret) are need­ed only by 1–3% of chil­dren with foot defor­mi­ties. Basi­cal­ly, these are medi­um and com­plex forms of cere­bral pal­sy.

I have noth­ing against com­fort­able chil­dren’s ortho­pe­dic shoes (boots, san­dals) with soft soles, a stan­dard (below the ankles) medi­um-den­si­ty beret and a small soft arch sup­port). Well, why not. This truth is very hard to find. Most often the back is high.

For many physi­cians, pre­scrib­ing ortho­pe­dic shoes is a habit passed down, per­haps through the work­place. And so do almost every­one who is relat­ed to chil­dren’s legs.

In the­o­ry, ortho­pe­dic shoes keep the leg in the cor­rect posi­tion and pre­vent fur­ther defor­ma­tion. This is a skele­tal approach. Indeed, if we con­sist­ed of bones and lig­a­ments, then this would be ide­al. But the bot­tom line is that chil­dren con­sist, among oth­er things, of CONSTANTLY DAILY devel­op­ing mus­cles. The child walks, crawls, runs, mus­cles grow and become stronger. This is how the body is formed. About the mus­cles of adults is a sep­a­rate con­ver­sa­tion.

A small digres­sion about the foot. This is a bril­liant inven­tion. 28 bones 20 own mus­cles. WHY? The fact is that in addi­tion to the means of sup­port, it is also a sen­sor. The bare foot deter­mines the posi­tion of the body in space by hun­dreds of micro-move­ments per sec­ond.

So, by shack­ling a child’s foot in high ortho­pe­dic shoes, we deprive it of the oppor­tu­ni­ty and need to devel­op inde­pen­dent­ly and con­tribute ONLY to the pro­gres­sion of foot defor­mi­ty and mus­cle degra­da­tion.

What kind of shoes to buy then, you ask?
I’ll put it sim­ply — which one can not be bought:

- shoes with a high stiff beret or back that ris­es above the ankle joint;

- hav­ing a rigid rigid sole;

- hav­ing too soft berets and back. “Liq­uid shoes” — if there is one, then do not use it when walk­ing on a hard, even floor, let her run with her grand­par­ents in the vil­lage or at the dacha on uneven sur­faces.

All oth­er shoes please buy.

Do not for­get: if a child has a defor­mi­ty of the feet, it must be shown to an ortho­pe­dist.

Most often, soft mus­cle-stim­u­lat­ing insoles, massage/exercises, and hav­ing a mas­sage mat at home are suf­fi­cient.