Children’s feet are not just small adult feet, the bones in the feet are still very soft as they have not fully developed and hardened.  This means unwanted forces on children’s feet have the capacity to alter development, which can cause issues later in life.  Regular assessments of children's footwear is important as the child grows.  The walking pattern of children also typically differs to that of an adult.  Children's lower limb and walking assessments is something we conduct at PW Podiatry and things that may come up include instability, intoeing, heel pain, knee pain, knock knees, bow legs, juvenile bunions and more.  For some conditions in children's lower limbs the recommended pathway is to simply allow further development to occur and monitor progress.  In other cases we may intervene with certain treatments including footwear changes, foot orthotics and exercises to strengthen muscle/tendon units.  We also treat children with general treatments such as ingrown toe nails, callus and warts.