What Is Clubfoot?
Clubfoot means a variety of congenital features of the foot in which the baby’s foot is out of its normal position or is twisted. In this condition, the tendons in the baby’s body are shorter than normal. Clubfoot is general birth defect in babies. This disease can range from being mild to pretty severe. Majority of the newborn babies have clubfeet bilaterally. Majority of cases of Clubfoot is naturally treated and it is successful, although in some cases children may need a surgery later on in their life.
What Are The Causes Of Clubfoot?
The main cause of clubfoot is still not known but it is not believed to be caused by the position of the fetus in the mother’s body. In few instances, clubfoot tends to be caused due to some congenital musculoskeletal abnormalities like spina bifida. It is also known that if a female smokes during pregnancy then it may lead to clubfoot in the child, especially in people with a family history of this disease.
What Are Some Of The Symptoms Of Clubfoot?
- The top part of the foot will be twisted in a downward direction thus turning the heel in an inward position.
- The appearance of the child foot may look as if it has been turned upside down.
- There will be a clear leg length discrepancy.
- There is underdevelopment of the calf muscles.
Natural treatment to cure clubfoot
Ankle dorsiflexion
In this exercise, you need to do is just lay your child on their back, put your palm or your hand under the heel of your child. Then you can gently grasp your kid’s knee by the other hand. Next, you should lightly raise their foot up till you feel that your child shows a slight resistance. Remember to pull heel down and bend their ankle as much as possible. The time for holding this position is 10 seconds. It is advisable to repeat this exercise 10 times.
Foot abduction
With foot abduction exercise, you firstly need to lay the child on their back. You can help your child with clubfoot by gently grasping the forefoot with one hand while lightly holding their calf with the other hand. Then, at the base of the big toe, you can gently rotate your child’s foot outward. It is suggested that this position should be kept for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise 10 times.
The squatted position
The squatted position can be used as an easy natural exercise for their child to manage their clubfoot. In this kind of exercise, you can do squat with your child when they are walking by encouraging them to follow your instruction. You should remember to keep both heels flat on the floor when practicing this position. After that, you should monitor your child to the right position and help them to fix if there is anything wrong. This exercises can help your child to extend calf muscles while making ankles and feet become more flexible. When your child grows up, you can encourage them to jump like a kangaroo, walk like a bear, and totter like a duck based on the squatted position they got used to since they were a child.
Strengthen the muscles
Foot abduction exercises and ankle dorsiflexion exercises are good for your kid with clubfoot. But when they are older, you should change the focus into helping make their muscles stronger. You can help them to strengthen the muscles by pulling the foot out and up. You should put your finger at the outer edge of the foot and tell your child to use their toes to touch the finger. While trying to reach your finger, your child is doing the exercise to stimulate the muscles.
Alternative exercise
You can encourage your kid to use their foot to draw sand pictures when your family goes to the beach. If your child wishes to create rainbows on the white sand, you can instruct them how to use a windshield-wiper action in combination with big outward movements of the foot to paint it. You should also ask your kid to keep the heel down in the sand while doing these activities.
Performing all these above exercises daily is required for the children who are suffering from clubfoot. Don’t forget to consult a doctor to get help if there are any problems.
