7-Year Old with weird shoe wear patterns

[hangman49]

I have a seven year old who walks slightly pigeon-toed, but not enough that we (or his pediatrician) were worried about it.  We just retired his latest pair of sneakers after 4 months of use.  The left sneaker shows lots of wear on the outside rear side of the heel, while the right sneaker shows the same amount on the inside rear heel.  To describe it another way, there is excessive wear on the left of each sneaker.  Is this something that could indicate a problem?  He has some coordination/neck/posture problems--none are normal, but not severe enough to seem like a severe problem.  What do you think?

[Yena H Do, DPM]

I would go see a podiatrist that specializes in pediatrics.  This is not a normal finding for a 7 year old.
Your child's hip movement, knee alignment, and gait evaluation needs to be examined as well as muscle strengths/weaknesses. It is difficult to assess online.  There are orthotics/gait plates and muscle strengthening exercises that can help.

[Dr_Foot]

Pigeon toe gait at around age 7 is considered normal but differences in the left and right wearing are not. Shoe wear patterns are a feature of your childs biomechanics ,aka his walking. Different wear patterns are typically due to foot posture: high arch or flat feet to put it simply. It sounds like your child may have a limb length difference, but as to what is the cause this needs to be tested. As one limb maybe longer then the other the opposite side trys to compensate for this thus causing a different foot function and hence wear patterns. I would suggest you visit a podiatrist to get your childs True and Apparent Limb lengths difference tested as to see where this problem maybe arising from and therefore guild your treatment.
All the best!

Regards

Dr Foot