The baby is 1.5 years old and when she walks, her mother feels that her legs are not quite normal, not straight at all, they look like rotund legs. A neighbor aunt said it was caused by diapers and that tying the legs would cure it!
O-leg is literally an O-shaped leg, where the two knees cannot touch. In addition to affecting the image and looking unattractive, O-shaped legs can also cause damage to the knee joint. Because cartilage damage is “irreversible”, it is difficult to regenerate cartilage after the injury, so early prevention and treatment is very important.
1.How can you tell if your baby has O-leg?
There is a criterion to diagnose whether your baby is O-legged or not: when both legs are naturally straight or standing after 2 years old, if both feet can come together, but the knee joints cannot come together, it is called O-legged. Mothers should not think of solutions on their own because they feel that their baby has leg problems, because it involves the development of baby’s bones, so they must go to the hospital for examination.
2.The culprit of O-leg is diapers?
It doesn’t matter! O-leg has nothing to do with diapers!
If the baby has O-shaped legs, the diaper is worn or not, the legs are O-shaped. That’s right, babies’ legs are originally O-shaped, in the womb, and they are until they are 2 years old. When the baby is in the womb, the shape is a ball, arms and legs are shrunken into a ball. The O-shaped legs, from the mother’s fetus out, when the baby slowly grows up, will not be so O-la!
O-leg is the natural development of the baby’s stage of performance, and the knee joint related. Diapers mainly touch the baby’s hips and thighs, but not the knees and calves. There is no basis for saying that diapers affect the shape of baby’s legs.
3. If it has nothing to do with diapers, who does it have to do with?
(1) Lack of vitamin D!
When a baby with rickets grows up to about 1 year old, when learning to stand and walk, it will be difficult for the legs to carry the weight of the body, which will also lead to the lower limbs bending towards the outside and thus forming O-shaped legs. Vitamin D can promote the absorption and utilization of calcium and phosphorus to prevent rickets. Therefore, mothers should ensure that their babies have time for outdoor exercise, whether breast-fed or formula-fed full-term babies, 2 weeks after birth need to supplement 400 IU of vitamin D daily, while premature babies supplement 800 IU of vitamin D.
(2) Stand too early! Walk too early!
Baby growth and development are gradual, some babies can’t wait to stand up in five or six months, and parents also let the baby stand for a long time, the little baby leg bones are soft, it is easy to compress deformation, the formation of O-leg. Be sure to pay attention to the baby before 9 months do not stand for a long time, it is best to walk training after 11 months, too early will affect the baby’s bone development. In addition, the toddler car is also very bad for the health of the baby, because the toddler car will compress the baby’s hip joint, resulting in the baby’s balance disorders, mothers must be used with caution.
(3) Baby’s skeletal abnormalities!
Congenital skeletal dysplasia, osteogenesis, trauma, tumors, etc. may lead to O-leg or X-leg, but these cases are relatively rare, as long as the baby is examined after birth is no problem, mothers should not worry about it!
4.Prevent and treat O-leg with leg binding? Wrong!
Please think twice about tying your baby’s legs. I can tell you responsibly that either using leg ties to prevent or treat O-leg is a pit!
The habit of leg binding not only hinders the baby’s activities, but also affects the heat dissipation of the skin, and the pollution of sweat and feces can easily cause skin infection.
The reason why leg tying can not play a role in treating O-leg is very simple. Because O-leg is a bone deformity, and when the bone is subjected to a large enough external force, it will generally fracture, but not bend. Even if the force is small and prolonged “subtle”, it will not deform. Therefore, if your baby is really O-legged, don’t hope to improve it by binding the legs.
Ways to prevent O-leg.
Pay attention to your baby’s vitamin D supplementation, and do not let your baby learn to walk too early; the bones of 0-2 year old babies are not fully developed and set, so parents should not make a fuss if they find that their babies have O-shaped legs at this stage. Because in the clinical discovery, this stage of the baby grow up a little, both legs will slowly become normal, no need for special treatment, more need not use. “Leg binding, leg wrapping” and other ways to correct.
Warm tip: If the O-leg is still aggravated after the age of 2, and the baby’s lower limbs are found to be asymmetrical and bent at too large an angle, then it is necessary to go to the hospital for professional medical help in time.