Podiatry Care for Children
Lefort Podiatry in Forest Hill proudly offer quality podiatry care for children’s feet. We treat residents at our Forest Hill Clinic from Doveton, Burwood East, Vermont Blackburn and surrounds.
Children are not small adults. The feet of young children are soft and pliable, so abnormal pressures can easily cause the foot to deform. The foot of a child grows rapidly during the first year, reaching almost half their adult foot size.
That first year can be very important in the development of the feet.
Although foot and ankle pain in children is not as common as in the adult population, there are certainly problems that arise in growing bones and muscles that are more common in particular age groups.
For example, non-specific growing pains is common in the age groups 3-5 and again at 7-9. Also heel and knee pain frequently occurs in both boys and girls between the ages of 9-15.
Common Conditions Treated by a Children’s Podiatrist
- Flat feet
- Toe walking
- In-toe (feet point inwards) and out-toe (feet point outwards) walking
- Limping both painful and painless
- Ingrown toenails
- Curly toes
- “Growing Pains”
- Heel pain termed Sever’s Disease
- Knee pain called Osgood Schlatter’s Disease
- Poor gross motor skills
What can a Podiatrist do to help?
As part of a complete management plan to address your child’s needs, we frequently liaise with other health care professionals and sports teams. The team at Lefort Podiatry, in particular Antoni Caserta, our resident Paediatric Podiatrist currently undergoing a PhD in toe walking and working at Monash Health’s paediatric gait clinic, are well versed in directing you and your child along the most appropriate pathway when there is a need for adjunctive therapies outside the scope of podiatry.
A podiatrist will:
- assess your child’s lower limb skeletal development and gait (walking pattern) to determine whether intervention is required
- recommend exercises to help balance muscles and reduce foot deformities
- prescribe Orthotics to help correct abnormal foot posture
- provide advice regarding footwear and expectations of normal skeletal development
- refer your child to an appropriate specialist as required
Book your Appointment for Children’s Podiatry at Lefort Podiatry in Forest Hill or Doveton.
Contact us today to make an appointment.