What should I do if my baby walks on tiptoes? How to tell if it is normal?

Some babies like to walk on tiptoes, which makes parents quite worried, because no matter whether the baby is walking or jogging, they will always walk on tiptoes. So what should we do if the baby walks on tiptoes? How to tell whether the baby's tiptoeing is normal?

How to tell whether it is normal for a baby to tiptoe

Frequency observation method: Parents can first observe how often their children walk on tiptoes to determine whether it is really an abnormal condition. If the child occasionally walks on tiptoes and occasionally returns to normal, there is no need to worry too much.

More stable after four years old: Generally speaking, the baby's motor coordination function will gradually mature and complete after the age of four. Before that, if the baby cannot walk steadily, there is no need to worry too much.

Can squat with feet flat: Although children want to tiptoe when walking, they will flatten their heels when standing still, or can squat quite well, etc. These situations are all within the normal range and parents do not need to worry too much.

Reply around two years old: Generally speaking, most of the tiptoeing conditions in early childhood will disappear around the age of two. If there is no improvement at the age of three or five, the possibility of pathological factors will increase.

There are many physiological reasons: Standing on tiptoe is usually caused by many physiological factors. After careful examination, it is found that the child's hind leg tendons are not too short or too tight, and there are no abnormal nerve reflexes. There is no fever or illness during growth that causes problems with nerve or muscle function.

Congenital abnormalities: The most worrying thing is congenital problems with the hamstrings or abnormal conditions of the feet. However, if it is a situation like this, other abnormal conditions should occur before the baby learns to walk.

Pathology will be detected early: If it is a pathological cause, abnormal information should be detected before the child starts learning to walk, such as when moving the feet or helping the child put on shoes.

How to treat a baby walking on tiptoe

Prioritize the treatment of the disease: When treating the tiptoe posture, it is important to first treat the symptoms individually, and then cooperate with rehabilitation. In particular, some degenerative diseases will become more and more serious, so they must be treated separately. Otherwise, rehabilitation is only treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

A series of problems arise: If a child already has problems, he or she may actually have other more serious disease-related problems, and standing on tiptoe is just one of the abnormal conditions discovered by the reaction.

Perform rehabilitation exercises: Generally, it starts with rehabilitation exercises, such as passively pressing the soles of the child's feet to loosen the short tendons. If it feels like there is a problem with integration, relevant sensory integration therapy should be performed.

Parents remind their babies: When it is impossible to find out the reason why children stand on tiptoe, parents should repeatedly remind their children to keep their feet flat, or provide incentives for them to change the habit, or even find shoes with harder soles, and then slowly correct the habit.

Baby learning to walk safety protection

Maintain a safe environment: When training your baby to walk sideways in the early stages, have him or her walk slowly while holding onto solid furniture. Parents must pay attention to the surrounding environment, as the child may randomly grab items on the table while practicing sideways walking.

Choosing shoes for learning to walk: If the child can walk steadily, parents can help the child choose shoes suitable for learning to walk. It is recommended to choose shoes with hard soles and good ankle coverage; it is not recommended to let the baby wear sandals or slippers.

Ankle support: Because the ankle support and stability of babies at this stage are not yet fully developed, shoes with high ankle coverage will help the baby's walking stability. In addition, choose shoes with hard soles rather than soft soles, as softer soles will make it more difficult for the baby to walk.