When children walk on tip toes

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When children walk on tip toes

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Your child walks around on their tip toes, is that a problem? That depends on their age. Most children will walk around on their tip toes for the first two years of life. That's just as they are learning to feel the ground, they are getting used to it, it's faster. From two to three, they still walk on their tip toes, that's when it becomes a habit. Habitual toe walking needs to be corrected at that point, otherwise, you are starting to talk about the achilles tendon shortening and tightening. If it shortens, it's going to be a lot more difficult to adjust that later in life because you have to go through all these exercises to lengthen it. Prevention is so much more important than reaction. If you start noticing two and three year olds walking on their toes, tell them, "Walk on your feet, not your toes," help them out. If they can't get their feet down, the calf muscles are too short, that's when they need to be seen. That's when they need to be corrected and helped.

View Noah Blumofe, DPM's video on When children walk on tip toes...

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Noah Blumofe, DPM

Podiatrist

Dr. Blumofe was born and raised in Skokie, Illinois. Later he attended the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed his undergraduate studies in 1996, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences. He then attended Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine at Rosalind Franklin University in Chicago, where he received a second Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences in 1998, and his Doctorate of Podiatric Medicine in 2001. Dr. Blumofe's residency was completed at the St. John Detroit Riverview Medical Center in Michigan, which is affiliated with the Kirkside Osteopathic Medical School. The following year he continued his post-graduate training with a two-year surgical fellowship in Long Beach, Calif. His main responsibilities included patient care, diabetic foot and wound care and surgical procedures of the foot and ankle, as well as teaching podiatric residents.

Dr. Blumofe's specialties include diabetic wound care, podiatric medicine, neuropathy, limb salvage, cosmetic foot surgery and sports medicine. He attributes his passion for helping diabetics regain and maintain a more normal life to the experience he had in seeing his mother and his grandfather deal with the realities of the condition. Often, Dr. Blumofe is known to say to his patients that "diabetes is NOT a disease, it is a lifestyle change".

When Dr Blumofe is not working (all four hours of the day that remain), he spends time helping his wife, Sandy, raise their three children Abby, Joey, and Rachel. Dr Blumofe holds a 1st degree Black Belt (ShoDan) in the Jinenkan Martial Arts (though has since retired!)

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Transcription: 
Your child walks around on their tip toes, is that a problem? That depends on their age. Most children will walk around on their tip toes for the first two years of life. That's just as they are learning to feel the ground, they are getting used to it, it's faster. From two to three, they still walk on their tip toes, that's when it becomes a habit. Habitual toe walking needs to be corrected at that point, otherwise, you are starting to talk about the achilles tendon shortening and tightening. If it shortens, it's going to be a lot more difficult to adjust that later in life because you have to go through all these exercises to lengthen it. Prevention is so much more important than reaction. If you start noticing two and three year olds walking on their toes, tell them, "Walk on your feet, not your toes," help them out. If they can't get their feet down, the calf muscles are too short, that's when they need to be seen. That's when they need to be corrected and helped.