Before we can understand flat feet, we need to understand what is the arch of the foot? What is the role of the arch?
The arch of the foot is caused by the uneven growth rate of the plantar bones and ligaments during the growth and development of children, and is an arch-shaped structure made of the tarsal bone and metatarsal bone linked by ligaments, joints, muscles and tendons. In infancy, the skeleton and the tendonous structures of the sole are nearly equal in length, and the muscles and tendons of the foot are not yet fully powerful.
The hands and feet are the fastest growing parts of the bones in the limbs, and the growth of ligaments cannot keep up with the growth of bones, so the bones and ligaments lose the space for longitudinal growth as the growth of bones accelerates under the condition that the original attachment point remains unchanged.
The foot arch has the name of “natural shock absorber”, which has strong elasticity and can cushion the shock to protect the human body, so that the gravity of the human body is dispersed to various points of the foot, and ensure the stability of the person standing, while avoiding direct compression of the blood vessels and nerves on the bottom of the foot. With the growing age, children walking, running, jumping and other activities increase, prompting the foot muscles stronger, ligaments more powerful, the height of the arch, the form of stability played a strong role in fixing and support.
From birth to growth, the foot undergoes different stages of evolution, and the final inflection point of human foot maturity is generally 15 years old for women and 18 years old for men. Therefore, children and adolescents in the growth and development stage, the normal development of their feet during the growth process is very important. Therefore, although the arch of the foot is small, it needs to be taken seriously by parents and regular foot examinations should be done from a young age to understand the development of the foot.
What is flat foot?
As the name suggests, a flat foot is formed when the arch of the foot collapses or disappears, which means that the palm of the foot is flatter and flatter than normal people, and “walking like a duck” is how many people describe a child with flat feet. In foreign countries, it is generally called “DuckFoot”, also known as “flat feet”, “flat feet”, “duck feet” or “duck feet”. “or “DuckFoot”. Studies have found that the incidence of flat feet in infants and children within 2 years of age is 100%, and the arch gradually begins to appear at the age of 3-4 years, until the development of the arch tends to be completed in the pre-puberty period, and the incidence of flat feet in children aged 12 years is 12.03%.
There are many reasons for the formation of flat feet, except for congenital factors, most children’s flat feet are caused by soft tissue strain or lack of exercise on the soles of the feet, resulting in insufficient development of muscle and tendon strength, resulting in deformities of the metatarsals, navicular bones, cuneiform bones and their mutual position and the formation of flat feet.
With the improvement of living conditions, children’s participation in household activities is reduced, entertainment is mostly computer, television and other “static” activities, foot muscles and ligaments lack of adequate exercise, making the body too obese, will make the arch muscles under pressure, and thick fat will also cover the arch.
Children are too fat or learn to walk too early, so that the arch has not yet developed a good load, long-term pressure, resulting in flat feet. In addition, wearing travel shoes for a long time is also the cause of the formation of flat feet.
Travel shoes are a combination of leather shoes, rubber shoes and cloth shoes and other footwear characteristics developed for travel sports. In order to facilitate sports and long-term walking, travel shoes are made with a high last, so that the palm of the foot will sink down, which will produce fatigue over time. And the palm of the foot is the front pivot point of the arch, fatigue damage to the palm of the foot will inevitably cause damage to the arch, and over time, the formation of flat feet.
Secondly, travel shoes are mainly designed for sports, the material of the sole of travel shoes is hard, which can make people walk for a long time and produce a good reaction force when the ground friction, but in daily life, the hard sole is easy to cause heavy fatigue of the feet and thus cause flat feet. Therefore, experts reminded that travel shoes are only suitable for children to wear during sports, and not for daily life, not “a pair of shoes to walk the world”.
Children’s flat feet can generally be diagnosed only at the age of about 4 years old, before this age, the arch of the baby is covered by a thick layer of fat, usually forming a false flat foot phenomenon. In children after the age of 4, the arch is slowly formed, but the development of the foot is not yet fully mature, and flatfoot conditions are more likely to occur, with varying degrees. If a child’s foot development is not particularly abnormal, it is best for parents to take the child to an institution with foot testing equipment for a professional examination at the age of 4, so that early intervention can be made if there are any abnormalities. If the arch collapses significantly at the age of 6, it is time to consider flat feet.
Children with flat feet walk in an inward-looking figure, with their toes facing outward, and their heels are easily injured, and the outside of the heel and the inside of the sole are easily worn.
Due to the lack of arch support, the navicular bone collapses and the ligaments on the bottom of the foot lengthen, which, combined with the uneven pressure, causes the heel to rotate inward when walking, affecting the heel, rear calf and knee. .
Children with flat feet often complain that they cannot walk for long, and their legs get tired and painful easily. If they walk or overact for a long period of time, the soft tissues of the feet may become inflamed due to overuse, and the joints may become painful due to improper stress.
Natural flat feet usually disappear by the age of 6, when the bones and joints are no longer easily deformed and the arches of the feet have developed. Less than 20% of children with flat feet still have flat feet into adulthood, so for young children, as long as the bones and joints can still be deformed, there is no cause for concern and no need for treatment.
Babies with flat feet can practice walking on their toes or on the outside of their feet to achieve certain corrective effects. Flat feet that cannot be corrected should be orthopedically treated in a hospital. If a child with flat feet has more or less anatomical and biomechanical changes at the time of symptom onset, surgical correction should be considered if the results of prevention are not satisfactory.
Early prevention is far more effective than remedial treatment in the treatment of clubfoot.
(1) Causes of flatfoot should be removed
Obesity, poor nutrition, and too little exercise should be removed so that the bones of the feet can have a good developmental environment under proper weight bearing. Parents should pay attention to the child to maintain a proper sitting posture, to avoid double knee inward, outward w-shaped or kneeling posture.
(2) actively participate in physical exercise
Physical exercise can lose weight and reduce the pressure load on both lower limbs; it can improve appetite and reduce the occurrence of malnutrition. Most of all, physical exercise can enhance the strength of foot muscles and ligaments, and the enhanced strength will improve the ability to maintain the shape of the foot arch structure, which can make the foot arch not collapse in human development, such as frequent running, rope skipping, barefoot jumping exercises, beach barefoot running and jumping, forefoot running, ballet exercises, etc., so that the foot muscles and ligaments do sufficient flexion and extension exercises to improve the strength of plantar muscles and ligaments.
Instruct children to strengthen the muscles and ligaments of the foot and ankle joints to maintain the arch form, such as instructing children to take the initiative to pinch things between toes (rubber, sandbags, etc.), pinch balls between feet, toe walking and heel walking to exercise the strength of foot muscles, and relax muscles in time after exercise to improve blood circulation in the foot and ankle, enhance the strength of plantar muscles and maintain and improve the elasticity of the arch.
Of course, physical exercise needs to control the amount of exercise and weight: within 9 months of the baby, do not let him go down too early to practice walking, and do not stand for a long time. Because in the case of the arch is not yet well formed, the baby forced to practice walking, the whole body weight pressed on the foot, it is easy to make the arch overload and gradually lead to flat feet.
It is best for babies to be barefoot at home, especially in summer, because this can exercise the muscles on the feet and increase the ability of the toes to grasp the climb, which helps toddlers. The amount of physical exercise for young people should be controlled, should be gradual, gradually increase, and the practice time should not be too long.
The child after 11-12 years old, although in a period of rapid growth and development, but because the development of muscle strength is slower than the skeleton, therefore, do not often arrange to engage in adult work because of its tall stature. 15 years old before the age should not carry out a larger weight of weight-bearing exercises.
Sports activities are mostly based on running and jumping exercises to overcome their own weight, pay attention to the correctness of landing when doing the action, use the forefoot elastic landing cushion, and avoid sports with too much impact on the landing of the foot. When organizing long-distance hiking and pulling activities, it is not advisable to ask the participating youths to walk for too long at a time. For long-distance walking, attention should be paid to the use of multiple breaks to regulate the amount of exercise during the march.
(3) Choose a good pair of shoes for your child
When choosing shoes for your child, you should pay attention to the following points: Measure the length and width of your child’s feet, so that you can have a good idea when buying shoes. The shoe should be loose and tight, with a finger of space at the heel (or ensure a finger of distance between the toe and the toe), and there must be room for the baby’s toes to twist freely in front of the shoe; the heel of the shoe should have a certain degree of hardness.
To choose shoes with a certain bump in the arch of the insole, such shoes can play a supporting role for the arch, reducing the chances of arch subsidence. To buy shoes with soles that can be bent (with two fingers can be bent), but the part around the root of the shoe should not be easy to bend. Do not buy plastic sandals, such sandals are easy to deformation, heat transfer, can buy soft leather shoes, cotton shoes. Sandals must have straps at the back, so that the shoes will follow the foot when walking.
Avoid wearing uneven shoes and poor quality shoes, which often put the foot in an outward position and can easily cause flat feet. In addition, adolescents should not wear thick-soled shoes, so that the toes and feet can not move, walking without gripping the ground to force the action, so that the sole muscles and ligaments do not get exercise.