Find Out if Your Child has Flat Feet – Follow These 3 Simple Steps!

Have you noticed your child walking or running differently lately? Has your child been complaining about foot or leg pain? If you are unsure whether your child has flat feet or not and you don’t have access to your medical professional, I will help you figure out whether your child has flat feet or not.

I have been fitting children’s shoes and helping children with flat feet find the correct pair of shoes for the last 10 years. One of the main reasons why parents bring their children to the shoe store where I work — many times referred by their physical or occupational therapists — is that their children have been diagnosed with flat feet.

Other families come to the store because their medical professional diagnosed their child with flat feet but since the child doesn’t complain about pain they were told not to worry about it, but they are obviously concerned. Just to be clear, pain is not the only reason to treat flat feet.

Some children with flat feet don’t experience any symptoms of pain while some others do and have difficulty staying active.

Is Your Child Flat-Footed? – Let’s Find Out in 3 Simple Steps!

1️⃣ First Step

Have your child stand on a flat surface (make sure your child is not standing on carpet) and make sure that your child is standing straight and looking straight ahead. Take an image of your child’s feet from the side as shown in the images below:

These images will help me determine whether your child has a high, regular, low, or no arch at all. It’s important that you take images of both feet.

2️⃣ Second Step

With your child standing on a flat surface and looking straight ahead, take a look at your child’s feet from the back as shown in the images below:

This image will help me determine whether your child’s heels are neutral, inverted, or everted.

3️⃣ Third Step

Email me the images of your child’s feet: [email protected]

This service is free of charge and it will take me less than 24 hours to respond with whether your child has flat feet or not. 

The Complications of Having Flat Feet

Don’t stress out if your child has flat feet, this condition is very common, and it’s believed to be hereditary. However, this doesn’t mean that flat feet should be left untreated, and I want to be clear that pain is not the only reason to treat flat feet.

Did you know that the way children’s feet strike the ground has a significant effect on their bodies? When children are flat-footed, they don’t have an arch below their feet to minimize the impact that their feet take when every time they touch the ground. This means that your children’s feet are not able to absorb the force of their bodies. The muscles and joints in their feet need to work harder to try to correct that imbalance. This often leads to issues in other parts of their body such as the knees, hip, and lower back.

It’s normal for young children to have flat feet and a certain degree of pronation, the issue is when that pronation becomes excessive, which is referred to as overpronation. This condition can lead to poor posture habits as well as foot, leg, and back pain.

The most effective way to treat a child with flat feet is through wearing the correct type of shoes, and depending on the degree of your child’s flat feet, orthotics as well.  Let me prove it to you!

Shoes for Kids with Flat Feet — What a Difference the Correct Shoes Can Make!

Let’s take a look at an image of a child with flat feet standing barefoot. Do you notice how the feet are collapsing and turning inwards? Since there is no arch to support the feet, both feet are collapsing and turning inwards. This can throw the whole body out of alignment and leads children to place pressure on areas of their body where they are not supposed to.

Before Image

Let’s see what happens when we fit the same child in a pair of the supportive shoes I recommend. Do you notice how the child’s feet are a lot straighter?

After Image

Let’s take a look at another example of a different child!

Before Image

After Image

Pretty awesome, right?

I always recommend parents to be proactive and don’t take the “wait and see approach” when it comes to treating their children’s foot conditions, as that can only lead to the condition getting worse.

While many children have flat feet and notice no problems and require no treatment, others may experience the following symptoms:

• Your child might complain about how their feet tire easily.
• Painful or achy feet, especially in the areas of the arches and heels.
• The inside bottoms of your kids’ feet might become swollen.
• Back and leg pain.

What Are the Best Shoes for Kids with Flat Feet?

I have put together an article that describes supportive sneakers for children with flat feet.

If you wish to support the work of Fitting Children’s Shoes, you can Donate Here Your support helps ensure that families around the world can find the correct shoes for their children, regardless of their foot shape or condition.