Physical therapy and gymnastics are an integral part of treatment for flat feet. Convenience lies in the fact that the child can do it at home; to achieve a result, it is not necessary to attend expensive procedures. We will tell you how to conduct classes for a child in this article.
What is it for
Exercise therapy, that is, a physical therapy complex for flat feet, is always part of the combined conservative treatment.
More than 80% of cases of children's flat feet are amenable to correction thanks to a gentle effect, without surgery.
With longitudinal and transverse flat feet, as well as with combined deformity of the feet of 1-2, and sometimes 2-3 degrees, doctors begin treatment with a complex treatment. It includes massage, manual therapy, wearing orthopedic shoes recommended by an orthopedist, and gymnastics.
Gymnastic orthopedic exercises allow you to strengthen the muscles of the feet, tendons, ankle muscles, which helps to correct the lung and middle flat feet.
With severe anomalies, surgical intervention is indicated, but cases of severe pathologies of the feet are not such a common occurrence.
Therefore, we can safely say that exercise therapy is one of the foundations of the successful correction of flat feet in the vast majority of cases. The first classes can be against the clinic at the place of residence under the supervision of an experienced instructor - a medical worker, and subsequently perform a set of exercises at home.
Before starting classes, you should know that the best results from gymnastics and foot massage can be obtained between the ages of 7 and 15, flat feet lend themselves best to correction in children aged 10 to 12 years.
Longitudinal flat feet with this effect are treated better than transverse. The course of treatment is long, you should not expect an instant result. According to statistics, the correction takes an average of 2 to 3 years. In some cases, it takes about 5 years of systematic and systematic training.
There is no universal list of exercises and techniques, since each child is assigned a specific training program, taking into account the degree and type of deformity, the characteristics of the foot. But there are basic exercises that are included in almost all complexes of physiotherapy exercises. Let's talk about them in more detail.
What you need for classes
For more effective performance of some exercises of the complex, you will need to have on hand:
- gymnastic stick;
- stool by age;
- tennis ball;
- soft polyurethane foam mat;
- orthopedic massage mat.
Problems and questions can arise only with the last point, because the choice of such products in stores and orthopedic salons is great.
When choosing an applicator mat for treatment, you need to enlist the recommendations of an orthopedic surgeon, who will tell you about all the features of the child's pathology and tell you which mat will suit him best.
For therapeutic purposes, choose a massage mat made of hard materials with a pronounced protruding relief or needle-like texture.
Soft and gentle mats are more suitable for the prevention of flat feet than for treatment.
You can perform exercises from a standing position on the applicator (no more than 15-20 minutes a day)and then on a regular soft polyurethane foam rug.
Simulators
If the attending orthopedic surgeon permits, parents can purchase a flatfoot trainer or mini-trainer for their child. Today there is a large selection of both. These are planks - elevated platforms for advancing, and pimply balls for exercising and simultaneously massage the feet, and round rotating platforms with an uneven surface.
Exercises on simulators should complement classes, but in no case should they cancel physical therapy as such.
A set of exercises
The complex includes exercises from various positions. It is always recommended to start with those that are made from a lying position:
- Exercise 1. In a lying position on a soft "foam" mat, the child needs to pull the socks first to the right, then to the left, then towards himself. The final movement will be to turn the feet inward, towards each other, as is done with the palms when clapping.
- Exercise 2. In the prone position, the child needs to slightly raise his legs so that the heels do not touch the mat, and stretch his toes to the mat. It's good if you manage to touch the surface with them.
- Exercise 3. In the prone position, the child needs to raise his legs, after which the foot of the left leg needs to be held along the right, and then change legs and do the same on the opposite side.
The second part of the complex is performed while sitting on the mat:
- Ask the child to stretch out the legs and take turns lowering and raising the toes on the left or on the right foot.
- Hands clasped toes. At the same time, the child bends forward, and then slowly pulls the feet with his fingers towards him.
- While sitting, ask the child to bend the knees, placing the foot only on the toes. Slowly bring your heels together and spread them apart, while the socks should not come off the mat.
- The child sitting on the mat should grab a tennis ball with his toes. Once this works out, you need to raise and lower the ball without releasing it.
- Sitting on the mat, the child should roll the ball between the toes and heel with his feet, bending his knees.
Sitting on a highchair (it is important that the furniture is for the child by age, that is, the feet do not dangle in the air while sitting, but confidently touch the floor), the second part of the exercises is performed from a sitting position:
- Exercise 1. Ask your child to take turns flexing and unbending their toes.
- Exercise 2. Ask the child to "write" with their feet in the air as even and wide circles as possible. First, it should be done clockwise, and then counterclockwise.
- Exercise 3. Ask the child to take turns tearing off the mat, then the heels, then the socks, you can do this by rolling from toes to heels and back.
- Exercise 4. The legs are placed on the outer edge, and from this position, the feet should be smoothly and slowly moved to the vertical position on the inner edge.
- Exercise 5. The tennis ball is rolled from the right foot to the left, each making several circular motions by lifting the foot on the ball.
Exercises in a standing position are best performed on the orthopedic massage mat mentioned above.
The duration of this part of the complex should not exceed 15 minutes:
- Ask your child to walk on the mat first on his toes and then on his heels.
- The mat should be walked on first on the outside of the foot, and then on the inside.
- Ask your child to roll from heels to toes on the uneven massage surface of the mat, and then vice versa.
- Finish off by jumping on the applicator mat.
The second part of the complex in a standing position is performed on a flat surface:
- The child should roll the gymnastic stick with his foot. First - one step forward, and then back. This will massage and strengthen the entire arch of the foot.
- Clutching a gymnastic stick with your hands across the shoulder blades, fixing the back in a straight position, you need to perform several squats, while trying not to tear your heels off the floor surface.
- The child, leaning with his hands on a gymnastic stick set in front of him in a vertical position, should take turns on the heels - left and right.
It is advisable to perform each exercise of the complex with flatfoot 7-10 times, classes should be daily.
Age features
Physiotherapy is effective in preschool and primary school age, as well as in adolescents up to 15-16 years old, while the foot is still in the stage of formation. In an older age, it is often not possible to stop the progression of the disease and start its reverse development with the help of gymnastics and massage.
Parents of babies should be the most attentive in physiotherapy exercises. You should not force them to practice forcibly, so as not to discourage the desire forever. This is especially true for practicing with the applicator.
Gymnastics will require a certain pedagogical flexibility from parents - if it is painful or difficult now, then you can postpone the exercise until later.
It is important to exercise in a playful way so that the baby is interested. But with adolescents, it is better to choose the opposite tactics - only the perseverance of the parents and the right motivation will help the boy or girl cope with the existing problem.
For babies, it is better to start classes with 2-3 minutes a day, gradually increasing the time to 15 minutes. Teenagers can start with 5-6 minutes a day, increasing the load and the time for performing each exercise gradually, so that after a couple of weeks they come to daily 20-25 minute classes.
Permitted types of physical activity
Many parents are interested in what types of physical activity can additionally help in correcting flat feet, and which ones will only harm. The most important question, of course, concerns the exemption from physical education at school. Orthopedists are unanimous on this issue - no release is required, for children with 2-3 degrees of flat feet, classes in special groups are shown.
Every physical education teacher knows what a special group for flat feet is, and will select for the child only those exercises and load that will not harm him and will benefit him.
A child with flat feet should definitely not do weightlifting, powerlifting, boxing, in which the load on the legs is very high.
Running and especially speed skating and figure skating are categorically contraindicated.
Gymnastics and any sports associated with jumping are not recommended - the load on the spinal column is serious, and it will be much harder for a child with impaired foot amortization to endure it. Football and hockey are thus also canceled.
The diagnosis "flat feet" does not mean that the road to sports is "ordered" for the child. With deformed feet, you can and should go in for swimming (excluding jumping into the water), synchronized swimming.
Oriental martial arts classes are very useful - taekwondo, karate, jiu-jitsu, aikido. Cycling can help correct longitudinal flat feet in children and adolescents.
Useful Tips
Treatment will be more effective if parents adhere to the important rules for successful treatment of flat feet:
- Monitor your baby's weight. Excess weight is an additional load on the ankle, knee and hip joints, which are already noticeably affected when the foot is flattened. The diet should be balanced, moderately light, not devoid of vitamins and minerals. It is useful to eat jelly or jellied meat during treatment - this dish has a positive effect on the formation of cartilage tissue.
- Walking barefoot. For feet, not comfortable house slippers are more useful, but walking with bare feet on the floor, carpet, tile. The more varied the surface, the better. It is good if it is possible to let the child go to walk barefoot on sand, earth, grass. There is no need to be afraid that the child will catch a cold, it is impossible to get sick from walking with bare feet even on a very cool surface. Systemic hypothermia can occur if the child is sitting on a cold booty.
- Coordination of the type of shoe with an orthopedist. You should choose orthopedic shoes only when the orthopedic doctor tells you about it. Self-righteousness in this case can only harm. Sometimes it is enough to wear orthopedic insoles inserted into the most common pairs of shoes.
Heavy and massive orthopedic shoes are indicated only for children with serious deformities, as well as after foot surgery.
And in this case, the doctor gives full recommendations on which a pair of orthopedic shoes is made. It takes into account all pathological changes in the leg of a particular child.
Physiotherapy
It is best to combine gymnastics with flat feet with massage and physiotherapy. From modern methods, you can discuss with your doctor the so-called taping - support of certain muscles of the foot with special adhesive tapes.
It is possible and necessary to do therapeutic gymnastics with tapes, and since tapes-tapes redistribute muscle load, the effect of such a "duet" will be more positive and faster.
For information on what flat feet are in children and what to do with it, see the next video.
