Childfren's Foot Exam

Ask the Doc………
“Is it a good idea to have my children’s feet checked? My Pediatrician has never really looked at them.”

Absolutely! Having your children’s feet checked is one of the most important things you can do for them.

Frankly, it’s very unfortunate that so little importance is relegated to the human foot by most health care professionals. Look at how much emphasis is placed on having your child’s teeth checked and they’re replaceable!

Your child’s feet are the foundation of their entire body. Many times the problems we see in children’s knees, hips and low back can be helped with proper foot positioning.
So having them examined is critical to their skeletal development. This is important in preventing bone and joint problems such as arthritis, and can help them perform better in sports.

A structural foot evaluation can also help them avoid sports injuries. I recently saw a young girl for example, who broke her foot while playing soccer. Contrary to what she was told, this wasn’t a soccer “injury.” The tight calf muscles she had, made it impossible for her to pick her feet up properly while running and so she tripped, twisting and breaking her foot.

When you consider that in their average lifetime, your child will walk over four times around the world and carry over nine hundred thousand billion lbs of pressure on their feet (now that’s a number!), it might not be a bad idea to prepare those two “orphan structures” at the end of their bodies for the journey! You certainly would do the same for the tires on your car if you planned an extended trip.

If a foot problem is identified, parents are usually told that their children will outgrow it. The truth is you don’t outgrow most foot problems but to the contrary, you grow into them; i.e., the flexible, usually easily correctible problems seen, become fixed, rigid, often painful problems as they grown and develop. So the earlier a child’s foot problems are identified, the easier it is to correct them.

As mentioned above, the foot is the foundation of our entire skeletal system. It supports all of the weight bearing joints of our ankles, knees, hips and back. Since many problems we see are preventable, if anyone in the family has arthritic problems in any of these areas, having your child’s feet examined becomes even more important.

Arthritis is the number one cause of pain and disability today. Recent data shows that the major cause is not age as we thought, but rather structural problems (like a longer leg or flattened foot). It is these structural problems that we inherit and that can be stopped in most instances in children.

Unlike dental exams which are routinely recommended, a thorough foot evaluation can be done much less often and still have profound positive effects.

A former reconstructive foot and ankle surgeon and past Clinical Instructor of Medicine at Emory, Dr. Pack practices at MCG in Greensboro. He specializes in biomechanical structural analysis and works with patients who have arthritis and wish to decrease joint symptoms and remain active. Dr. Pack also treats athletes at all levels. In the 2004 Olympics he had a silver and gold medalist. He also helps the UGA Golf Team (2005 NCCA National Champions). For further information please see www.drloupack.com, drloupack.blogspot.com or contact him directly at 706-454-0040.