Toe walking

CJPowers · August 2012

A friend of mine has twins who are two and one of them walks on her toes. I was talking to my pedi about it because I teach kids with autism and a lot of them are toe walkers too. She said that because of exersaucers and jumpers babies hips are held in an extended position and their toes are only touching. If they spend too much time on these things their can severely impact their gross motor dev. My friends little girl has to wear leg braces now. Anyone heard this before?

geekychic · August 2012

I have. My nephew toe walks. They took him to the orthopedist (?) to see if he needs leg braces. I haven't seen him wearing any so I guess he didn't need them.

kkfeb04 · August 2012

DS is a toe walker, if you read the UO, we are currently waiting to see if he falls on the spectrum. He loved the jumperoo but he was flat footed in it because he was so tall. He can walk with his feet flat so its not a matter of physically can't do it. He will also put his feet flat when you tell him flat feet. I started saying this around 17 months, 2 weeks after he started to walk, which is when he learned to run. He runs on his toes.

BebeEtMoi · August 2012

Yup. My mother is a PT specializing in childhood development. Apparently, babies who spend too much time in the standing position before they are ready to walk develop a reflex (false stabilization) which inhibits real progress when the time comes to learn to support themselves, stabilize, and walk. Delayed developement of gross motor skills such as crawling and walking are common in these circumstances apparently, but obviously every baby is different. I am sure I'm not saying this as eloquently as she would, but thats the jist of it.

We don't have a jumperoo or exersauser due to the wrath my mom would come down on us with, but it's just as well because we live in NYC and every free square inch is a luxury! I just keep DD on her belly as much as possible and let her explore that way.

CJPowers · August 2012

kkfeb04:
DS is a toe walker, if you read the UO, we are currently waiting to see if he falls on the spectrum. He loved the jumperoo but he was flat footed in it because he was so tall. He can walk with his feet flat so its not a matter of physically can't do it. He will also put his feet flat when you tell him flat feet. I started saying this around 17 months, 2 weeks after he started to walk, which is when he learned to run. He runs on his toes.

What does UO stand for? I see this a lot with my students, but I think it has more to do with sensory input than it does with using exersaucers. Like you said he can physically do it. So I guess babies who spend too much time upright before they are ready can't physically do it when the time comes.

huahualove · August 2012

You guys are scaring me cause ds loves his jumper and to stand while you are holding him all the time. He is maybe in his jumper a total of 10 mins per day but maybe this is why it says that the baby's feet should be flat on the ground and not just tip toes. We keep a scale under him so his feet can be flat.

CJPowers · August 2012

huahualove:
You guys are scaring me cause ds loves his jumper and to stand while you are holding him all the time. He is maybe in his jumper a total of 10 mins per day but maybe this is why it says that the baby's feet should be flat on the ground and not just tip toes. We keep a scale under him so his feet can be flat.

10 minutes is nothin! he's fine. I was reading no more than 20 min a day. I don't know how accurate that is but I looked it up after I heard about this.

dixee.deluxe · August 2012

I don't see how limited time in a jumparoo/exersaucer as an infant (pre-crawler) could affect them so severely. Sounds like another scare-tatic to me.

My sister is an elementary school PE teacher. She always discourages toe walkers. Gently discorages. "Walk with flat feet, please." Edie has started toe walking and I tell her that and she just changes it up quickly. My sister also says that in her experience, if it isn't discoraged early, they seem to continue to toe walk.

vtwd40 · August 2012

huahualove:
You guys are scaring me cause ds loves his jumper and to stand while you are holding him all the time. He is maybe in his jumper a total of 10 mins per day but maybe this is why it says that the baby's feet should be flat on the ground and not just tip toes. We keep a scale under him so his feet can be flat.

DD loves standing too. He's not in her jumper much, but we have something under her so her feet are flat too. Shes also not in it much.When u hold her, she always wants to be standing. I think the biggest issue is tiptoes in te exersaucer and being in tere a long time.

schmood · August 2012

I used to work in a PT office and am now an orthotist (the person who makes the leg braces) In the PT office, for the toe walkers, we would either do serial casting - they would come in every week to get casted and each week, we'd stretch them a little further and then at the end of casting, would sometimes put them into AFOs (ankle foot orthotics = braces) Or, we would have them assessed by occupational therapy for sensory issues. There were a lot of patients that had sensory defensiveness on their feet - they didn't like the way things felt on their feet, which causes them to toe-walk, so they are only touching a small portion of their feet to the ground.

As far as bracing goes, I would say that most of the toewalkers that we see have an underlying issue, like cerebal palsy that causes them to toe walk. We really don't brace that many kids for just toewalking.

I don't know that I buy it that an exersaucer or jumperoo 'causes' toe walking...

kkfeb04 · August 2012

schmood:

I used to work in a PT office and am now an orthotist (the person who makes the leg braces) In the PT office, for the toe walkers, we would either do serial casting - they would come in every week to get casted and each week, we'd stretch them a little further and then at the end of casting, would sometimes put them into AFOs (ankle foot orthotics = braces) Or, we would have them assessed by occupational therapy for sensory issues. There were a lot of patients that had sensory defensiveness on their feet - they didn't like the way things felt on their feet, which causes them to toe-walk, so they are only touching a small portion of their feet to the ground.

As far as bracing goes, I would say that most of the toewalkers that we see have an underlying issue, like cerebal palsy that causes them to toe walk. We really don't brace that many kids for just toewalking.

I don't know that I buy it that an exersaucer or jumperoo 'causes' toe walking...

Yeah, I don't buy that the jumperoo caused his toe walking. He has sensory issues, so his OT thinks that is why he does it.

kkfeb04 · August 2012

CJPowers:

What does UO stand for? I see this a lot with my students, but I think it has more to do with sensory input than it does with using exersaucers. Like you said he can physically do it. So I guess babies who spend too much time upright before they are ready can't physically do it when the time comes.

Unpopular opinion.

Torani · August 2012

DS1 toe walks a lot, but not all the time. MIL said DH did it too. I'm not worried.

CJPowers · August 2012

I do think there are different reasons why kids toe walk. Some because of their dysfunctional vestibular system, like in a lot of the students who I teach who are on the spectrum. We also see it a lot with our preschoolers with physical disabilities at our school, which is often corrected with casting or braces. However, I do think that excessive amount of time in exersaucers and jumperoos holds their hips in an extended position which is not good. They are unable to see their feet which gives them a false sense of standing. I would be curious to read the research on exersaucers causing toe walking. It makes sense to me because babies tend to push up on their toes in them, even if they start out flat footed. Like I said my friend has twins and one is a toe walker. They both spent tons of times in exersaucers (it was pretty much their babysitter while my friend was caring for the other). So who knows.

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