Toddler with flat feet

[fella]

My 14 month-old had flat feet. This is causing her to walk on the inside of her feet. When she is standing straight, her legs (from the knees down) appear to angle out because she is standing with her weight on the insides of her feet. Our pediatrician says that she will grow out of it but may need orthodics in the future. We also took her to a foot doctor who said the same thing. My concern is waiting until she is 2 or 3 years old and then being told we should have done something earlier because now it's too late. Is there a risk of causing permanent damage to her knee and/or ankle joints or to her growing bones? Should she be evaluated for braces or orthodics now? Any I just a worried first time mom??
Thank you in advance for your time and advise.

[1998ne]

Many of these comments are help to me.  We have a two year old and, after having watching him walk on the insides of his feet for a year, decided to take him to a podiatrist to have him evaluated.  Indeed, our son has severly pronated feet--in other words, he has no arch and flat feet.  In the opinion of this podiatrist, we should have molds made for him in 6-7 months and that he (our son) should be in orthotics his entire childhood all the way up to 18--when he is done growing--and at that point, perhaps the small implant to "give" him a small arch.  So that's our story.  And I think it would be wise to get a second opinion.  This doc may be correct in all of his thinking, but my husband is tied to the idea that our son's outer hips might are tight (just as suggested in the above post) and that indeed, and no intervention is really necessary outside of regular stretching.  (How to get a two-year old to hold the frog pose in another matter altogether).  :-)  But I am encouraged to hear the stories of parents (and parents of children) with flat feet who report on having active, sports-playing lifestyles, which was a big concern for me!  

[mrs_incline]

My daughter also has flat feet. We noticed it early on at 1.5 yrs. We were told the same thing, she would grow out of it, and give her alot of barefoot time. By age 2.5 I decided to take action b/c her knees almost knocked toghether and it just didn't look right. We took her to a physical therpasit that specializes in feet. He molded orthotics for her, that she wears 50% of the time. She has a narrow foot and Nikes fit her the best and give her good support. Her ballet teacher said she had the same problem as a kid and ballet fixed it. Her ballet teacher believes it stems from the hips turning in and the muscles getting tighter in the hips, which then causes knee and tendon issues later. She showed us a stretch, the frog pose, to help the hip area open up. She had my daughter do the frog pose (http://www.ehow.com/video_4468181_the-frog-pose-yin-yoga.html), by laying on her belly, knees laying out to side at about 90-145 degrees and bring the base of the feet togehter. The link above demonstrates this pose.

[Ale1971]

I have flat feet, I am 36 years old, I have 5 children all of them have flat feet from a 13 years old to a 2 years old. My mom took me to all kinds of therapies when I was young and Drs., she made me wear special shoes until I was like 9 years old. I remember picking marbles with my toes and walking with them an puting the marbles in a different pile. Nothing changed, maybe If I did not do thoes things my pain had started earlier, we will never know. I still have flat foot. I have allways beeing a super active women, I do all kinds of sports, I have changed my weight 40 pounds on and off, 5 times one on each of my pregnancies,
Two years ago I broke my left ankle doing tornado kicks in my adult Karate class,  I wore a removable cast for six weeks my Dr recomended me not to do it anymore so I quited at purple belt, two 3 more to black belt; then I got pregnant of my fith child and gain 40 pound the pain on my foot never held, I could do one spinning class and the next day my anckle would swolen.
Last chrismas we went snow skiing I could bearly stand up after 1 hour skiing, so when we came back from our trip, I dicided I will go on surgery. Surgery was supposed to be one hour, it took the Dr. three hours to fix my foot. The Dr. is super happy with the results, my scars are perfect, and he says the implant is in a perfect position, he even took my case to an international conferences.
My surgery was February 22, I had an Arthroscopy  of all my anckle ligaments and a titanium implant to fix my flat foot on one feet. I was laying on bed for two month with out moving. Today is May 5 I can bearly walk I have pain every single second, everyday I wake up thinking today I will be able to run, jump and be normal. I still can't It realy hurts. It fels weird to have one flat foot and one foot with an arch,
I don't know how to walk with a foot with an arch, I asked my doctor 100 times if it will afect the simetry of the body, my knees or my hips. I still don't know, he says that everything will be better. I don't feel like I will have the strengh of going back to surgery to fix my other foot.
My family, my children are tired of not having their mom around as before,is like the need a 100% mom and they have only 1/4 of a mom I really wish I could play soccer with them as before, or go for a run with my 13 years old daughter. I wish I could carry my bags up stairs but I have cruches so I can't.
I am glad that I can walk even though it hurts a lot. So I don't know what is worst having flat foot or having the surgery to fix it.
I will try to post more on my recovery, for all of the people that feels like me.
Good luck.

[Trialanderror]

My son had the same. It was at its worst around 18 months to 2 1/2 years and then magically disappeared. I was told to just keep an eye on it and intervene by age 3 the latest. I let my son walk barefoot most of the time which strengthens the foot muscles and for the first 3 years I invested in shoes that simulate the barefoot motion. Stride Rite was the brand. This flat foot syndrome is a pretty normal stage around 14 months and I believe the reason that podiatric measures are only taken later is that the child needs to walk on those feet a few hundred miles first to even have a chance to build muscles before it can be determined which part of the foot needs support. Otherwise it could get over-corrected. I am glad you posted this because it reminds me to check my son`s feet. He is now 5 and I let him wear some of those cheap sneakers with pretty blinking lights on them for a long time and somehow his arch seems to flatten again. I will look for shoes with arch support again until he is 18. Fella, I would not worry too much for now but provide good shoes. I had the same problem as a kid and in my case it needed to be corrected but I only started wearing podiatric shoes between age 3 and 6 and all turned out fine.

[skymom]

I too have a daughter that has flat feet.  When she was 3 or 4 I took her to the pediatrician and to a pediatric foot surgeon.  They also said not to worry.  They said that often time the arch does not develop until later.  Well, she is 10 years old now and has had to have titanium implants because her tendons were being pulled and causing her pain.  We thought that she was just having growing pains in her legs but we were told that this can be common with kids around 12 years old who have flat feet.  The pain in her legs have obviously stopped and we are happy with the results.  We wished that we could have done something sooner.  Good luck and look for more answers.  

[Chrissylynn324]

i dont really know anything about flat feet but my husband (now 34) was born with a high arch.. the exact opposite problem.. he never had it corrected... the drs said it would eventually go down.. and now he has hip, calf, knee, and feet problems all associating with this issue.. if he is on his feet for an extennded period of time, he will have trouble walking the next day, his lower back will hurt.. all things related to his arch.. i would definately do my research and find out what can be done to correct the issue so that your child doesnt have problems later in life.. hope this helps... good luck=-)

[tmv]

My son had a small degree of this and we were told to buy a really good shoe with a good arch. We bought Nike's because his foot was narrow and these fit really well. He never had to have any other intervention. I don't know if he grew out of it or the shoes really helped. Best wishes.