Intoeing walking style
It’s always tricky to sit down and write these blogs. I want to give you the best information, without causing you to worry at the same time. This blog below, on intoeing, was a joy actually. Because for the most part… its all a “sigh of relief” when it comes to concern for Kids that walk with an intoed position. I’ll explain a little further…
When our children walk with their toes pointing towards the inside of their body, this is called Intoeing. It’s a walking style that is quite common and we see it a lot in little bubs as they first begin their loading journey. A lot of the time with babies starting to stand and load, the position of an intoe in will come from their time spent inside Mum’s uterus. Trying to get comfy in their can be pretty hard! So our babies will figure out a way to make it work. If the baby internally rotates the hip, leg and foot this will take up less space. Luckily humans are amazing! With load and the development of bone growth this will normally self correct.
Intoeing is commonly classified into 3 different origins.
Metatarsus Adductus - Picture drawing a line through the midfoot from left to right. Now virtually shift all of the forefoot and toes inward towards the other foot. This is a boney position that can have genetic links or purely positional development. If its aggressive its likely to be picked up at your paediatric assessments rights after bub is born. Often gentle movement of the foot daily will help and in severe cases splinting. A lot of Metatarsus Adductus goes uncorrected though. This is because it will be so mild and have limited impact on your child and their ability to move about.
Internal Rotation of the tibia/shin bone- Again this cause of intoeing stems from that position inside Mum’s belly. The majority of these cases will self correct by 4-5 years of age. This can look very strange. Almost, like the leg is trying to run away from the knee. As before, don’t worry, load and development will likely to take care of correcting this position.
Internal rotation of the femur/thigh at hip - This type of intoeing is more common to an older child between 5-9 years of age. This intoeing in your child develops when they are very internally positioned through their hips. Remember that blog on “w” position, well these two can link together like brothers in arms. So encouraging the change in seating position is definitely recommended.
Intoeing is generally not painful for your child. It only becomes an issue if your child displays other symptoms alongside the positional change. Are they tripping over their feet? Is it limiting their ability to perform normal movements— climbing, jumping, skipping? Are their hamstrings and adductor muscles getting really tight and keeping their legs from moving externally? You can check if your child can move externally by gently rolling their straight leg away from the middle of the body. Kids with tight adductor muscles will find this uncomfortable on the inside of their thigh and will prefer to roll their leg inward quickly. Also check the hamstring see if you can reach 70 degrees which is considered normal range of motion. Below this you should implement stretches. Check my insta for a video on how to do this.
In these cases parents can introduce an orthotic to help prevent any further internal rotation of the hip by limiting pronation of the foot. Orthotics do not correct the intoeing, but reduce further risk of foot position creating more internal rotation of the leg and thigh. Some at home stretches with your child is a great strategy to implement where there is obvious muscle tightness.
My favourite hamstring stretch
Get your child to lay on their bed and sit next to them at their thigh level. You are stretching the leg closest to your body. Pop their leg on your shoulder closest to their body. With your hand closest to their body gently hold their hip to the bed so they don’t lift it while stretching. Move your body forward to increase the stretch and range of motion of the hamstring. Goes easy here and count in elephants, 5 elephants each side. For example - 1 elephant, 2 elephants, 3 elephants, 4 elephants, 5 elephant ( swap sides). Hamstrings are important muscles and will be sore to get stretched. So little bit by little bit extend the stretch each day. Remember to lay them in the opposite direction and stretch the other leg!
By the age of 9-10 most kids will have grown out of an intoeing pattern. Hooray!! If you are concerned your child is past this age and still displaying intoeing walking, book them into see a Podiatrist, Physiotherapist or Occupational Therapist for assessment.
As always, any further questions just shoot me an email via our contacts page. X