Babies' feet are soft and cartilaginous. Babies are born with flat feet and it is normal to be so until about three or four years. It is what is known as physiological flat feet or flexible flat feet.
Unlike what will happen later when the plantar arch develops, the babies support the entire sole of the foot on the ground, without appreciating arch in the inner part because that area is full of fat and because the ligaments are still very elastic.
Foot development
The child has flat feet when the plant has no curvature or bridge (nothing or almost nothing). These can cause tiredness, pain when walking ... but as we say, children rest their feet on the ground during the first years of life is part of normal foot development.
Babies have a kind of fat pad on the skin that gives them the appearance of round and flexible feet. It is the foot morphology itself and there is nothing pathological about it.
When you get upright and start walking you will receive other stimuli on the sole of the foot, you will acquire balance and strength in the legs, the fat deposit will disappear and his plantar arch will form.
Generally, when the child stands on tiptoe, the plantar arch is pronounced but if this does not happen or causes pain in the child's feet, it would be spoken of a rigid flat foot, which would need treatment, but the cases are very rare.
Children, better barefoot
It is normal to see children up to five or six years old with a flat foot because the plantar arch is still forming. To encourage the development of children's feet, it is recommended that children walk off as long as possible.
Walking barefoot for all time on land (inside the house, on the hireba, on the sand ...) has multiple benefits for the health of the feet, but it is also good for the kidneys and circulation; relaxes and avoids stress; Eliminates toxins and helps the legs not retain fluids. In addition, it stimulates certain organs connected with the nerve endings of the soles of the feet.
And not only that, barefoot children develop their intelligence better since "that the physical movement and sensory stimulation of the baby through the bare feet is a factor of acceleration of maturation, proprioceptive development and intellectual development of the child", as they have The experts concluded in a study entitled "Preventive podiatry: barefoot children equal to smarter children".
So now you know. Whenever you can, try to let your children go barefoot so that their feet have total freedom of movement and develop correctly, reserving shoes for when they go out or to protect their feet from bumps.
