Child Athletes and Foot Problems

We are seeing a much higher level of performance expectation in sports from younger and younger children.

This can have severe problems later in life as the stress and impact, especially of repetitive movements, can affect bones that are growing and much softer and more pliable.

If you have a child in a sport, ask them how their feet feel. Pay attention to limping on the field of play or stumbling in that this can be an indicator of injury the child does not want to admit to, in order to keep playing. Time to heal is so important in a child's active life. And changing the demands on the body to allow a complete development.

The intricacies and demands on the human foot is absolutely amazing. Some of the smallest bones are expected to take the most abuse, ss well as intricate muscles and tendons.

Tearing or damaging these are very probable in competitive sports. Bringing us again back to time as a necessary component to healing. Unfortunately this higher level of competitiveness is encouraging parents and child athletes to do damage over a game that will be forgotten in a few days; whereas the damage may be for life.

It is not recommended to stretch and pull joints, tendons or muscles if they feel damaged. The trauma to that area creates tightness that can be further damaged if it is not given the time to relax.

Diagnosing foot pain should always be done by a doctor because of so many working elements in the foot.

Childrens Foot Health

Children grow so quickly that just keeping in them in clothes that fit becomes a real challenge. This also is a recipe for deciding to purchase cheap shoes because the child will outgrow them so quickly.

Although cost effective, it is a terrible decision for the health of your child's foot. Children's bones and ligaments are developing so quickly that serious damage can be done within a very short time. Shoes with no instep, heel or too tight on their toes; all are contributing factors to foot problems later in life.

This includes vascular, joint and muscular problems. Children will often not even realize this is happening to their feet because the pain or discomfort may not feel that bad. So it is the parents responsibility to check shoe fit every month.

You can not judge a child's foot health by adult standards (link to children's foot needs).

Proper fit will change from toddler to teenage years and you need to be aware of those needs and adjust the type of shoes accordingly (shoe fit).

Taking care of our feet is a very important step to our overall health.

Interior feet health

The complexity inside your foot is an amazing system of intricate bones, muscles and tendons.

These work in tandem together flexing, arching and bending to allow you to move, turn, pivot, bounce; well you get the idea.

Keeping these pieces and parts working well starts with your overall health. Vitamins and properly balanced diets start that process. I know, I know, we've all know we need to stay healthy. But remember how we discussed the fact that the foot is at a difficult part of circulation loop. When diabetes or other diseases start to become a factor, often the feet are the first victims of that poor health. So foot health really does start with your overall good health.

The next process is asking too much too fast of your foot. Stretching your feet is as important as stretching your hamstrings and other body parts before strenuous exercise. Stretching with your shoes on does not move a lot of parts in your foot that may be pushed as soon as you start running. Take your shoes off, message and stretch your tendons and muscles in your foot.

Here are five stretches you can do for your feet.

Now we need to move onto internal damage prevention. One of the common problems is jumping off structures onto cement or other hard surfaces that can actually compact or damage cartilage in your feet. Stone bruises from rocks or other items that penetrate into the bottom bone structure can be avoided simply with better soled shoes.

Any type of jumping runs the risk of landing sideways and rolling the foot. Prevention of injury needs to be conscious decision that leads you to better foot wear and less dangerous situations.

Tendons are very vulnerable in feet. How you move laterally and pivoting is something that should be practiced in the correct manner. Here are some examples.

When in situations where something can land on the top of the foot such as construction; should always warrant foot wear such as work boots that protect that part of the foot.

What about high heals, do they harm the interior of your foot? The answer is yes, some more information on that.

What you wear on the outside often decides what happens on the inside of you feet.

It starts from the bottom up.

I have to confess that my feet have taken more abuse than any other part of my body.

Yet as much as we trust and need those appendages, it is amazing how little effort we put into keeping them healthy.

You take the balance, flexibility and adjustability of you feet for granted; until that day they start to fail.

I wanted to start a blog on just the simple thinking of feet health. I don't know how many people will have to wait until they have trouble as a biped, before taking the time to actually read this information, but at least it will be available.

A fun fact to consider about your feet.

When a person weighing 150 pounds jogs three miles, the cumulative impact on each foot is greater than 150 tons.

You have approximately six inches by nine inches, or 54 square inches, supporting up to two hundred pounds that must flex and move in such a way as to propel that weight and balance that weight from falling over.

The worse circulation for healing and building cell structure in your body, is in your feet.

Some of the smallest frailest bones in your body are in your feet.

Feet have it tough. Yet we are completely dependent on them for most of the things we do in life.

With all of this in mind, let's take some time for our feet.