The LMD Podiatry Podcast
Board certified in Podiatric Medicine and Surgery, Dr. Dabakaroff completed her training in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Dr. Dabakaroff has been published in textbooks and has done research for various foot conditions. Dr. Dabakaroff brings with her new methods, both surgical and non-surgical, for treating multiple foot and ankle ailments.
Dr. Dabakaroff launched a podcast to educate and keep her community informed about various aspects of podiatry. Her goal is to offer a valuable resource to people while establishing new connections both within and outside her community.
To learn more, visit: LMDpodiatry.com or contact (954) 680-7133
The LMD Podiatry Podcast
EP #18: Foot Health in Children: What Every Parent Should Know
Welcome to a pivotal exploration of children's foot health, where we tackle some crucial aspects that all parents should be aware of. Did you know that foot deformities can begin as early as birth? In this enlightening episode, we're joined by Dr. Lauren, a seasoned podiatrist who shares compelling insights about foot development in kids and the sometimes overlooked importance of proper shoe choices.
We delve into the common concerns parents have, such as toe walking and flat feet, and the critical signs to watch for during those early walking years. Dr. Lauren stresses the necessity of an active role for parents in monitoring their child's feet, advising that while pediatricians can provide valuable referrals, awareness is key in catching potential issues early. Understanding what is normal for children's feet can empower parents to seek help proactively rather than reactively.
Not only do we cover the signs of foot issues that might arise, but we also explore the often underestimated role that proper footwear plays in a child's foot health. The quality of shoes can profoundly impact your child's foot development, making it essential to invest in the right pairs. By considering sturdy, supportive options, parents can help prevent future complications like flat feet from taking root.
As we wrap up, we encourage every parent to prioritize foot health from the start, ensuring that their little ones are set on the right path towards a lifetime of healthy movement. Don't wait for problems to become apparent—take action early and foster awareness about your children's foot development! Subscribe, share, and engage with us as we continue uncovering vital health information for you and your family!
To learn more, visit: LMDpodiatry.com or contact (954) 680-7133
Welcome to the LMD Podiatry Podcast. Trust us to get back on your feet. Here's your host, Dr Lauren DeBakeroff.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to the LMD Podiatry Podcast. We've got a fun one today. We're going to talk about what? Health in children. A fun one today we're going to talk about foot health in children. And I myself, I have a 10 year old and a 12 year old actually soon to be 11 and 13. And, if I'm being honest with myself, I really haven't given much thought at all to their foot health. I really haven't. Thankfully, knock on wood, I haven't had any issues.
Speaker 2:Dr Lauren is there an age where parents should start paying closer attention to their children's foot development where parents should start paying closer attention to their children's foot development. Yes, as soon as the baby comes out of the womb.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, I'm 12 years behind then, apparently. So foot deformities start at a very young age and they're mostly genetic and there are different things that you should look for. And typically the pediatrician picks up on things. When the baby is born, you know the first couple of months, but when a lot of the things really start you start to notice it is when the baby starts walking, so when usually an average between the average start for infants to start walking is usually between 12 to 18 to 17 months, something like that. So when they're like a year, year and a half old, when they start walking and they slowly gain their balance, you can kind of see what happens to their foot as it develops. And the number one thing that you should really look for is if the foot is straight or not. There are different curves to the foot that are natural, but there are significant abnormalities that can happen to a kid's foot at a very young age.
Speaker 2:Aside from looking aesthetically at the shape of the foot, are there any other signs? Because I think most parents tend to neglect something like that where, just like me, I wouldn't really think to look at it unless I had a problem. And even if I was looking at it, I don't know I'd be sure if it was normal or abnormal, Like what are some more, I guess, more specific things you could look for. Or is there a point where you should take your child to a podiatrist just to get a checkup, or is that something that should be looked at by your main doctor to see?
Speaker 3:if you're-, so, the pediatrician is usually the one that does the referral. The pediatrician will notice it. But in my experience I don't know why a lot of pediatricians they say that the kids will grow out of it and it's not true. A lot of, like you know, in-towing and pigeon and uh toe walking and um.
Speaker 2:Hold on, I want to stop. I want to stop you there, cause I want to forget. When you say toe walking, you're talking about a child that walks around on their tippy toes all the time. Yes, could you? You put my interest you pick my interest because my son has a friend who walks around like that and I always ask myself, like, like I've never looked it up, I'm just curious what is going on there? Talk a little bit about this toe walking, because it is an interesting phenomenon.
Speaker 3:Toe walking is very common, so it could be congenital, meaning there's a deeper line issue that's causing it. Or it could be idiopathic, meaning like the kids just feel like walking like that. So a lot of kids they just like to walk on their tiptoes and it's just you know. They're just, you know these girls that are like they have ballerina feet and they like to walk on their tiptoes. And then there's these boys who you know because they play and run around a lot, so they always tend to be on their tiptoes. So when they do they walk normally and have a normal gait pattern. You can see that they kind of favor walking on their toes.
Speaker 3:If they're constantly walking on their toes and they can't stop, then they need to go see a neurologist to see if there's something wrong with their spine or some type of something that we're born with, like like charcoal, marie, tooth, spina bifida. All these types of things that are wrong with your spine as a baby can affect you and make you walk on your toes and that's a neurological problem. So when do you know if it needs something a neurologist or not? You go to the podiatrist and the podiatrist, like me, I watch them walk for a while. I do a very full, lengthy gait exam. I just watch the kid walk for a while and if they're always at some point planting their heel on the floor, then I know that they just do it because they want to do it and probably their calves are too tight, and then I fix it with a couple of a couple ways that I fix it, and it's not something more serious. If every step they take they're always on their toes and they can't put their heel down at all, then it's time to refer to a neurologist and check them for other issues.
Speaker 2:So there's a distinction there, when it comes to the toe walking, between like almost doing it, subconsciously, without even like it's just happening, versus doing it because you want to do it or you're trying to avoid some discomfort that you have right correct.
Speaker 3:Correct. Now kids, they usually don't have pain, they just, they just walk, they're playing it's hard, you know, just becomes natural.
Speaker 2:What you mentioned, gait, I was going to ask about gate abnormalities in children. What is that term, gate?
Speaker 3:I think it's G-A-I-T right G-A-I-T gate is the pattern in which you walk.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I do for kids in particular, and adults. Sometimes I do a gate exam and basically I just watch them walk in my hallway up and down, up and down, up and down, until they get into their natural rhythm of how they walk, and then I can see where their foot lands, if their heel is reaching the floor, if they have an in-toe, if they walk on their toes, if they're flat foot, if they're high arch their toes, if they're flat foot, if they're high arch. Even when I watch people, watch kids or adults walk, I can see if the issue is coming from the foot, ankle, knee or hip. So that's kind of, the more you watch them walk, the more you, kind of you can see. And then I do a biomechanical exam to see what's tight, what's excessive, what's limited, what's abnormal.
Speaker 3:You know there's, it's in orthopedicsics, it's just there's a bunch of angles that I learned in school and if you don't fall within normal angles of the foot, ankle, toe, knee, except you know, etc. Then there's something else going on orthopedic deformities, etc. Um, there are simple things that can be fixed with, like change of shoes and custom orthotics, and then there's more advanced things that need surgery yeah, I was gonna, was going to get to that or to a pediatric orthopedist or a podiatrist that's more specialized in pediatrics.
Speaker 2:I had my own experience with flat feet. I don't remember how old I was, but I was probably, if I had to guess, approaching teenage years or maybe even in the teenage years. And I remember going and I still have flat feet. I don't wear orthotics anymore, aside from the obvious right Wearing orthotics and shoes. Are there any other treatments or is there any way to kind of prevent getting flat feet in the first place? Or is that just something that is a genetic you mentioned earlier?
Speaker 3:there's a lot of this genetic component.
Speaker 3:Flat foot is genetic. But if you really if, like if daddy has a flat foot and then you're watching your kid kind of flat, you want to prevent your kid from having, you know, from having a progressive like a flat foot that progresses over the years and basically as long as he's, the kid is always in some type of orthotic. As he grows up he's going to have a lot. He or she will have a less severe flat foot, right? So basically what the orthotic does is kind of helps mold the foot a little bit better and your kid is probably still going to have a flat foot. It's just not going to be as bad as they age over the years.
Speaker 2:Fascinating. I'm thinking in my head. I'm trying to figure out why it is that some folks have a genetic predisposition to these certain things like flat feet or many other different things it's interesting to think about.
Speaker 3:Epigenetics.
Speaker 2:A whole nother conversation for a whole nother day. What would be, I guess, a piece of advice you'd give to parents out there. Maybe they just had their child and, again, just like me, this is not on their radar, right? Nobody's really thinking about their kid's foot health. What advice would you give to a parent as their child starts to grow up?
Speaker 3:Invest in a really good pair of shoes for your kids. Don't buy the cheap stuff. That's hard, they go out of them so quickly.
Speaker 2:Dr lauren, can I?
Speaker 3:can I?
Speaker 2:just get the chip they'll get a new one soon enough. Come on.
Speaker 3:No, it's just a feet, a good kid's shoe. You know ranges between 30 to 50, it's not that bad. So invest in a good shoe, and a good shoe for a kid is. I always recommend fix like hard sole shoes, um, and high tops. So hard sole shoe with a hard sole, chew with the high top is probably the best for most kids, um, and if they do have, if you see that they're in towing or tippy towing, have them see a podiatrist right away. If they're flat footed, also recommend seeing some type of foot doctor or orthopedist. They need to start inserts a little early, because if you don't, if like, how flat is your foot, jeremy?
Speaker 2:I mean it's not great. I mean, when I if I mean if I consciously try to create some arch, I'm okay, but if I'm just standing around, yeah, they're pretty sunken down there Okay.
Speaker 3:So you could have probably had if your parents got you a new pair of orthotics every year as you grew until you reached your adult bones. So you were like, let's say, 13. You, your foot, wouldn't have done what it's doing right now.
Speaker 2:It'll start to take, take shape. Basically, you're like re-correcting the issue through infants.
Speaker 3:They're all cartilage, most of the bones have not really developed yet. So if you could help mold the bone, like mold, the ligaments and cartilage, into the way you want it to be, which is not flat, then the patient, the kids, they're going to have a future of much less flat feet.
Speaker 2:It's not that they're not going to have it at all, but they won't be pancake flat like yours, not that they're not going to have it at all, but they won't be pancake flat like yours. So can you look at let's just say hypothetically, an adult or a parent brought their child in when they started walking and are you able to look at their feet and determine at that early age that they are predispositioned to having flat feet? And if so, have you ever done like a custom orthotic at a very, very early age, like from when they start working? Because it seems to me like the earlier you address this like anything else, the easier it'll be to remedy the problem so at an early age.
Speaker 3:If okay, I'll give you an example. I went to, uh, I went to a kids uh. I took my kids to a birthday party and it was like at a kid's gym and there was this baby that was crawling around at the kid's gym and I was like I could not not notice her feet and basically her she must have been maybe 13 months. Her feet were like C-shaped, like they were completely in-toed C-shaped, they were completely intoed. I held the baby just because someone handed me the baby, and I took a look at the feet. I was like this kid, she's young, she needs serial casting, she needs to go to a pediatric orthopedist and she needs to have weekly casting to help mold the foot into the right position, the foot and the leg. And then they were telling me that they're already seeing a doctor and that she has a very big problem with her hip. And you know, basically what happened was when she came out of the birth canal, her leg was kind of yanked out, so the ball kind of the hip went out of the socket and but besides her hip issue she also has a foot issue.
Speaker 3:Um, that could be fixed with serial casting. The kid's still crawling, so she's not walking yet. When she starts walking, I would put her in like a brace with an orthotic. It's called an SMO or super malleolus orthotic. There are a lot of different devices that you could make for children to help them, you know, come out of those horrible deformities, because they are all cartilage. So, yes, if you see something a little off with your kid, you have someone needs to evaluate them, and I really hate when pediatricians say, oh, they're going to grow out of it because they don't. They really don't, they don't. You have flat feet, you're a very advanced adult that's a kind way of putting it you're over the age of 40,.
Speaker 3:Jeremy, how old are you?
Speaker 2:No, you're in your 30s.
Speaker 3:Okay so you have adult feet and they're only going to start hurting if you don't wear orthotics. So imagine how much your child could have benefited from you just progressively putting him in orthotics every year and you could help mold the cartilage so that they don't have such severe flat feet as the years go on, all right, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, I may have to come back and see you again and get this checked out. One more thing I wanted to touch on before we wrap this up. I'm curious. I've seen before in the past that obviously different cultures have different things they do. I've seen certain cultures that will actually like intentionally restrict foot growth for certain reasons, Obviously. I would imagine that's probably not a good thing. Do you know anything about that in different cultures? I'm just curious.
Speaker 3:So I mean, are you talking about the foot binding in China? That?
Speaker 2:they. Yeah, like I guess, like in certain cultures they have small, constricted feet. I just couldn't imagine why you would want to subject yourself to that torture.
Speaker 3:I mean that's a cultural thing, that's just cultural. Women. They would bind women's feet because men thought it was horrible, and their waists? I mean, those foot were horrible, I mean the women had horrible foot pain and they were walking in these little tiny shoes with no support.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they banned that. That I'm pretty sure they banned for binding in china.
Speaker 3:No, no, no good medical reason for any. I didn't think so, I was just curious. But you can't there. There are orthopedics and podiatrists that they we do plaster casts and help remold people, like kids with really bad feet, like kids with cerebral palsy, or like if someone has a club foot. I don't know if you know what a club foot is.
Speaker 3:A club foot is someone who their foot is like completely turned in with their hip and their knee and their ankle in with their hip and their knee and their ankle, and basically you slowly mold it weakly and then it comes out and you mold it in the right position because if you don't do it when they're babies, when they're adults, they're going to have messed up feet and then they need a lot of surgery and it's not worth it. Interesting, okay surgery. So if it could be avoided, bring the kids in when they're young so we could help fix it before it gets bad you hear that parents don't do what I did.
Speaker 2:Take notice of your children's feet from an early age and get them checked out, ask the pediatrician and, if you notice any issues, call Dr Lauren. She's great, she can help you. So, parents out there, if you're watching this and you've had any issues with your children's feet good, bad, indifferent, whatever it is I want you to drop a comment below. Tell us about what happened, how you fixed it, any pieces of advice. We'd love to hear your feedback and, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe if you like this content. Everyone, take care. Thank you so much for tuning in and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode, the LMD Podiatry Podcast. Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the LMD Podiatry Podcast For more information to the LMD Podiatry Podcast. For more information, visit lmdpodiatrycom. That's L-M-D-P-O-D-I-A-T-R-Ycom, or call 954-680-7133.