Your children’s feet change as they grow. As such, some common conditions affect children and these should be seen by a foot health professional to make sure they don’t become too much of an issue, making walking and activity painful.
As a parent, it’s important to get to know your children’s feet. So, here we touch upon Ingrown toenails, Corns & Callus and Flat Feet.
Corns and Callus
The skin is able to protect itself from pressure by growing more quickly, forming a thick outer layer. As such, sometimes the pressure is too high and the outer layer of skin becomes so thick that it acts like a foreign body on the skin. This is a callus.
A focus of pressure within the callus can occur causing a hard plug of skin to form and this is a corn.
Causes of Corns and Callus
Corns and calluses are the body’s protective mechanism gone wrong. There is no “root” to a corn or callus. This is because corns and callus form on the dead outer layer of the skin, not from under the top layers of skin.
Treatment of Corns and Callus
A foot health professional will treat corns and calluses by debriding or paring the callus and removing the centre of the corn. Pads are often used to reduce the friction and pressure of the corn. Your foot health professional will also discuss the type of footwear most likely to cause corns or calluses. In some cases, bespoke orthotic insoles may be prescribed to reduce excessive weight-bearing forces on the foot. Your foot health professional will finally devise a treatment plan that may include the following:
- Recommend regular treatment of removing the thickened skin
- Suggest a skin-softening cream
- Advice on self-care
- Give footwear advice
- Provide padding devices to take the pressure off the painful area
- Analyse the pattern of walking and prescribe bespoke orthotic insoles to help correct it
- Refer for nail surgery if required
Flat Feet
Many babies naturally appear flat-footed. This will usually disappear as your baby begins to stand and walk. As such, children with flat feet or low arches may not be able to keep up with other children. This is a result of added strain on the feet and legs.
Causes of Flat Feet
There is no way of giving a child an arch if they have a true flat foot. However, children who appear flat-footed may have a normal arch but flatten it when they stand. This movement is called pronation and may cause a variety of painful symptoms, make the child tire easily or have problems with gross motor skills. If a child is pronating their feet, orthotic insoles may be useful to improve foot movement and relieve any painful symptoms.
Treatment for Flat Feet
It is important to discuss your child’s mobility and foot care problems with your foot health professional. They can advise which service or professional support is most appropriate to your child’s needs. After assessing your child’s foot function the foot health professional may recommend bespoke orthotic insoles to help relieve foot pain and discomfort.
Orthotic Insoles
Bespoke Orthotic devices will maintain foot support and function. With the growth of the child, a remoulding of the orthotics to fit the foot shape must be undertaken. Orthotic Insoles help to support and realign the foot, assisting with the distribution of bodyweight evenly. Pain, poor stability and physical problems may benefit from bespoke orthotic insoles. These devices are not simple arch supports and need to be 3D scanned and moulded or milled for each individual prescription.
Ingrown Toenails
The treatment of ingrown toenails is one of the most common complaints that foot health professionals will see and it is common for children to suffer from them.
Many people fear treatment, but many ingrown toenails can be treated conservatively. As such, visiting a foot health professional regularly enables easy removal of ingrown nail spikes. However, surgical removal, taking less than 10 minutes under local anaesthetic is most effective for recurring ingrown toenails.
How do you treat ingrown toenails?
Toenail Surgery is carried out to remove the ingrown partial or total nail under local anaesthetic. Correct application of a chemical will ensure the nail does not regrow. This method leaves no scar on the skin and for a partial nail avulsion (removal), leaves most of the nail in place resulting in a good cosmetic appearance. As a result, healing is slightly slower by this method although there is usually less postoperative pain.
If you have pain in your toenails see your foot health professional, the treatment may not be as bad as you might imagine and will not always require surgical removal of the nail under local anaesthetic. The offending nail spike may easily be located and quickly removed with limited discomfort.
Take care of your children’s feet
If you have any concerns about your children’s feet, take a look at our dedicated We Fix Feet Kids page or alternatively please contact We Fix Feet at one of our clinics in Ilkeston, Derby or Beeston – Nottingham.