Why Is My Child Walking On Their Toes?!

It seems like whenever we go out to the store we seem to notice at least 1 (if not 2-3) children walking around without their heels ever touching the floor. Believe it or not, toe walking has become more prevalent in recent years, but there is still a lot of confusion of what the best approach is, even for a pediatrician!

Now it is important to remember that some toe walking is part of natural development. It's common to see your little one, up to the age of 3 years old to be toe walking intermittently while they are still learning to navigate the world around them.

Without getting too deep into the physiology of it, toe walking stems from a vestibular processing issue (that is one of senses we often never think about). Although this walking pattern comes from a dysfunction of one's sensory system, if it's not addressed it can evolve into more than just a sensory based issue.

In many cases, children begin to develop shorted calf muscles from constantly being on their toes which leads to a loss of range of motion in their ankles. By the time these kiddos start going to OT to work on improving their sensory processing, they often already have an underlying physical impairment that also needs to be addressed as well.

If both of these areas are not addressed in a timely manner, unfortunately the options of what can be done starts to become limited. When the muscles of the calf shorten so significantly a physician will often recommend serial casting (basically foot boots that restrain the child's feet to keep their toes on the ground) for several months to help re-lengthen the muscle before a lot of the rewiring work can take to decrease this behavior/habit.

Check out below what calf lengthening and vestibular work you can do at home with your child today!

What you can do at home:

• Yoga focused on poses that help lengthen the calf muscles such as downward dog. Here is a link to our favorite yoga card game.

• Any activities that make your child use the core muscles of their feet such as picking up bean bags with their feet or standing on a bosu ball.

• Playing games on their bellies on a scooter board to help activate their vestibular system

• Activities that require more weight bearing through their heels like kicking a soccer ball or hiking a football

• Invest in pair of Ikiki shoes that have a fun little squeaker in the heel that help provide an auditory reminder for your child to walk with their heels down.

It truly takes a multi-faceted approach and not one strategy suits all.

Reaching out to us so we can help your toe-walker!

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