Constantly complaining about foot pain

[physmom]

Lately, DD's been complaining about foot pain a lot.  We got her a new pair of shoes because we thought maybe her old ones were too small but she's still complaining.  We have even asked too different pediatricians about it and they both say that everything looks fine.    DH and I are both flat-footed so that was our initial thought but both pediatricians said that they saw an arch and it's developing well. 

It's normally first thing in the morning that she's complaining that she can't walk because her feet hurt too badly.  The only thing I can think of is buying her some warm fuzzy slippers (it's almost winter time here) since we have wood floors.  Otherwise I'm not sure what else to do!

ETA: oh man, why did I keep having to fix a typo of calling it "foot paint" not "foot pain"?

[McGucks]

DS1 had foot pain in early adolescence.  His ped said it was essentially "growing pains," attributable to the fascia stretching (or something like that).  I would give him foot massages at night to help him feel better.  Not sure if that really helped, but who doesn't like a nice massage at night?

[physmom]

Originally Posted by caedenmomma 

DS1 had foot pain in early adolescence.  His ped said it was essentially "growing pains," attributable to the fascia stretching (or something like that).  I would give him foot massages at night to help him feel better.  Not sure if that really helped, but who doesn't like a nice massage at night?

Huh, she does have pretty big feet.    She loves foot massages so maybe we'll try and make them more routine...

[Comtessa]

Have you considered asking a chiropractor about it?  It seems like a long shot, but sometimes chiro (or other holistic) treatment can address pain that doesn't appear to have any obvious cause. 

My nephew also suffered from foot and leg cramps as a preschooler -- usuallly at night while trying to sleep.  His ped also said it was "growing pains" and massage seemed to help him, too. 

It could be that she's so active during the day that her foot muscles are stiff when she first wakes up.  This happens to me all the time (of course, I'm getting closer to middle age here, so I suppose it's to be expected), especially if I've been walking around barefoot the day before.  If she stops complaining after she's on her feet for a minute, it might just be the stiffness wearing off.  Sometimes a foot-rub first thing in the morning works for me (I have to do it myself, though -- DH is not at his best in the morning). 

One last thought -- you might want to look carefully at her shoes themselves to see if they are causing the problem.  I notice that a lot of toddler shoes (especially for girls) are really poorly designed and made.  I'm not sure if it's because they grow out of them so fast, or what, but it seems like shoe manufacturers really cut some corners on these little shoes.  One pair of DD's shoes is slightly mismatched in size, for example -- one shoe fits tighter than the other.  On another pair, the inner padding on the sole is smaller than the shoe itself, so it does not fit flush inside the shoe.  If DD wears those shoes without socks, her skin gets pinched between the sole and the side of the shoe.  Little girls' shoes (even for toddlers!  don't get me started!) are frequently designed with a bit of a raised heel, which any woman who's worn heels knows can cause foot/leg/hip/back pain by altering the posture.   (This is not to say that you deliberately purchase high heels for your toddler!  But the shoes are so small and the heels so low, and they are so ubiquitous on the shoe-store shelves, that I think we sometimes don't realize that they are really high heels, when you look at the proportions of their little feet and really pay attention to the overall shape of the shoe.  I received a pair of hand-me-down clogs that I put on DD once and never realized that they were essentially high heels until I noticed that she kept falling down in them on the playground, which caused me to look more closely at them and then send them straight to the trash.)