Pigeon Toed?

[ktmama]

Hi mamas!
My lovely 14 mo ds is new to all day walking and so I've put him in hard-soled shoes when we are out and about. For the longest time, he's been in soft-soled shoes and, while I have noticed that his right foot was turning in a bit, I chalked it up to the unstructured nature of the shoes. Now, it's clear that his right foot turns in. a lot. It's enough that he sometimes trips over it with his other foot.

When I was a kid, doctors corrected pigeon toes with special shoes, etc...I know they don't do THAT anymore....but want to educate myself before I seek help from my doctor. Have any of you dealt with this with your little ones?

TIA!

[confustication]

I know that my older brother had this problem, and 'back in the day' they did make special shoes, but his doctor told mom to simply put his shoes on backwards.

I gather it worked for him, he seems not to trip on his own feet nearly as often as I do.

I think your best bet though is to check with your ped.

[lkmiscnet]

My 14 mo old is not yet walking independently, but just the other day started walking behind a push toy.

He also just had a ped appt and his ped noted that one of his feet pointed in a bit. She advised that if this continued for awhile, to get him some high top, hard soled shoes and to switch the shoes and put them on opposite feet for about a month and that would help him not be pigeon-toed.

Just make sure the shoes are not too tight and are properly fitting.

I just read a blurb in the August issue of Babytalk magazine that many babies walk pigeon toed when starting out and it's nothing to worry about. It went on to say that you should let your ped know so they can re-check it later on, but it's nothing you should be concerned about so early on.

[neverdoingitagain]

I'm pretty sure that pigeon-toe is normal. I think that unless it causes your ds to actually stumble a lot, its not a problem. Children tend to be pigeon toed until around 3-4? then its toes-out. As I recall, people don't actually walk "straight" until their teens.

[misidawnrn]

I remember my mom's friend had a DD that was pigeon toed and they put roller skates on her. You can't roller skate pigeon toed and have to turn your feet straight. That was close to 30 years ago so I don't know what they would recommend but when your child is older, it might be worth a shot.