The opinion that orthopedic shoes help a child avoid flat feet is still very popular. But this is a myth.
However, the word "orthopedic" is really nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell shoes at a higher price. An instep support, a high heel, Thomas's heel - all this has nothing to do with the prevention of flat feet. Moreover, for the correct development of the foot, freedom of movement is important, and shoes with a high heel, on the contrary, hamper movement.
According to orthopedists, flat feet are manifested at a very early age - from birth to one year, often in the hospital at all, when there is no question of any shoes. And neither flat feet nor clubfoot are treated with the shoes that can be bought at any store.
It is important to distinguish between pathological flat feet, which requires medical supervision and medical care, and age-related a feature of children's feet - up to 5-7 years old in all children, it is almost flat, this goes away by itself as it develops child.
To understand whether a child has problems with the development of the foot, it is enough to regularly show it to a pediatrician in the first year of life. The same is with the clubfoot: if the baby simply puts the socks inside, this is corrected without doctors and special devices.But the true clubfoot is a severe deformation, which you definitely will not confuse with anything.
What are real orthopedic shoes?
It is always sewn to order, taking into account the characteristics of the person who will wear it, and taking into account specific problems with the musculoskeletal system. No healthy child needs such shoes. In stores, it is not sold and is sewn for children, for example, with cerebral palsy or a significant shortening of one of the limbs.
Why doesn't it make sense to buy shoes marked "orthopedic" in the store?
If you believe all your life in the miraculous properties of "orthopedic" shoes, then getting rid of this stereotype in your own head, of course, is not easy. However, orthopedic doctors believe that such shoes cannot have any positive effect on the health of children's feet.
Too hard outsole interferes with free roll. The rigid instep support does not form the foot, but creates inconvenience for the child. A soft instep support made of foam rubber is not at all capable of influencing anything due to its softness.
The fact is that in the place where he presses, young children have just a fat pad on the foot. And under it is cartilage, which in the future will turn into bone and form the arch of the foot. But while the instep support simply rests on the fat pad and cartilage, this does not in any way affect the formation of the foot.
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