What to do if your child's legs are not straight

Parents should start to deal with the problem of crooked legs from an early age, because the probability of correction is relatively high when the legs are crooked in childhood. However, when people become adults, their bones have been shaped, and correcting the crooked legs is much more complicated and takes a relatively long time. The phenomenon of a child's crooked legs may be a deformity caused when the child was still in the mother's womb, or it may be caused by improper walking or sitting posture. So if you find that your child's legs are not straight, what correction methods can be taken?

1. How to straighten children's crooked legs

Children's crooked legs can be corrected. There are many correction methods, the most common of which are simple exercise correction and massage. The selection needs to be based on the patient's disease course and condition. Generally speaking, the correction methods are mainly splints, leggings, exercises, corrective insoles, etc. The principles are basically the same, which is to relax the medial collateral ligament of the knee joint and restore the stable structure of the inner and outer sides of the knee joint. This will cause the tibia to be valgus and achieve the correction goal.

2. Daily precautions for crooked legs

Adjust your walking posture: People with O-shaped legs tend to walk with their feet turned outward, that is, when they walk, their toes point outward. When they walk, their legs will exert force outward, and the knee joints will be subject to outward force. Over time, when they stand, the knee joints will not be able to close together, resulting in O-shaped legs. Therefore, you must first adjust your walking posture and learn to put your center of gravity on the inside of your legs. A good walking posture should include standing upright, tucked in stomach and straight back, eyes looking straight ahead, arms relaxed and swinging naturally at both sides of the body, toes slightly pointed outward or extended forward, and even strides. When you first start adjusting, you may feel awkward, as if you can't walk, but it will become natural over time.

Remember to do the clamping exercise whenever you have time: always remember to straighten your legs and clamp your knees tightly, 3-5 times a day, each time for about 15 minutes.

Sitting posture: You cannot sit with your legs crossed, cross-legged, or kneeling. These three sitting postures may cause the legs to bend.

Standing posture: Do not stand in a relaxed position with your center of gravity on one leg for a long time. When standing in an at-ease position, the knee joint of the leg that is exerting force will also be subjected to outward force, and the internal rotation angle will increase. Over time, O-shaped legs will form, or the O-shaped legs will become more serious.

3. Reasons why children’s legs are not straight

Developmental factors. Improper feeding and adding complementary foods at the wrong time will result in the baby's nutritional deficiency. During the period of physical development, malnutrition or intestinal diseases may cause a lack of nutrients such as calcium and phosphorus, bone development disorders, bone deformation or joint cartilage dysplasia, resulting in changes in the knee varus.

Imbalance factors. Long-term bad posture or incorrect force habits can cause an imbalance in the muscle mechanics that control the joints. Long-term muscle mechanics imbalance can lead to joint displacement and form genu varum.

Bow legs caused by trauma or other diseases. In some cases, such as trauma causing damage to the lateral collateral ligament, which destroys the stability of the knee joint, it can also lead to bow legs.

If babies stand up too early, they may suffer from deformities. Premature weight bearing, such as premature standing or excessive obesity, can easily cause abnormal epiphyseal development due to weight bearing. Some babies like to stand when they are just five or six months old. Parents think it is great that their babies can stand so early. Instead of stopping them, they are very happy. They are completely unaware that this may have adverse effects on the babies' legs. Because infants are in the growth and development stage, their bones are not fully developed and it is difficult for them to support the entire weight of the body. In addition, their muscles are relatively weak, and the epiphysis is easily bent and deformed under stress, causing developmental abnormalities. If you stand for a long time, your legs will become deformed, namely O-shaped or X-shaped legs.