What you do not know about claw foot

Many diseases concern the child, and after recent scientific discoveries, it has become easy to recognize the symptoms of the disease in fetuses as well. Claw foot disease is a defect that affects the feet of children and newborns, it has many symptoms, and effective treatments have been reached for it now. In this article, we provide you with full information about clubfoot and its details … so follow us

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Claw foot

Claw foot or as doctors call it “clubfoot” is one of the birth defects that affect children. There are many questions raised in the clubfoot about what the disease is, the causes of infection, as well as the treatment available for it, and who are the groups affected by it.

What is claw foot?

Claw foot or clubfoot is a congenital problem that affects children. It resembles a twisting of the foot inwards and tends downward, which may cause difficulty in the movement for the child and affect walking directly. Usually, this imbalance in the shape of the foot does not like pain, but the child’s troubles may increase if treatment is neglected.

Rapid intervention in the defect in the clawed foot, in turn, helps in the speed of treatment and makes the child avoid many problems resulting from the disease, including forcing him to walk on both sides of the foot in the case of severe curvature.

The clubfoot infection can be in one or both feet of the child, and in both cases, it is called “congenital clubfoot” or “clubfoot”. The warp in the claw foot is the result of severing the connections or tendons that connect the muscles and bones in the foot. It is a congenital deformity that usually occurs in newborns.

There are some cases of the disease in which the symptoms are severe and reach a severe curvature of the foot inward, and sometimes the foot turns upside down, and this causes an obstacle and difficulty in walking, except that the child may be born with claw feet or develop them at a relatively late age between two to three years.

What are the causes of clubfoot or claw foot?

The discovery of a specific cause of children’s infection with clawed feet has not been sufficiently clarified yet, but there are some factors, including genetics, that play an important role in increasing the risk of developing the disease. Clubfoot usually affects one out of every 900 children, and the possibility of infection increases if there is a history of this disease in the child’s family.

If one of the parents was infected with claw feet at a young age, the probability of children getting infected increases by 15% to 30%. Neglecting the symptoms of the disease causes complications that occur to the child, and parents should pay attention, especially if there is a family member with the disease.

What are the symptoms of claw foot?

It is important to know the symptoms of claw foot in order to be aware of them because prompt intervention in this disease makes recovery from it in a shorter time and does not affect the child’s movement in general. Here are some of the symptoms that appear in a child with clubfoot:

The presence of a twist or arc in the front part of the foot, heading inwards and downwards. The disease may affect the heel of the foot specifically, and the warp occurs in it.
In some cases, a claw foot infection causes a shortening of the leg or foot.
There is a degree of injury that causes the foot to curl inward and look a bit like a golf club.
Clubfoot usually does not cause pain for the affected child.

How is clubfoot diagnosed?

If you have a genetic history of claw foot disease, follow-up should be done by the doctor because the diagnosis of clubfoot can be from before birth through the use of ultrasound, especially if the infection is in both feet.

Early detection of the disease, conducting the necessary examinations and tests and ensuring that the patient does not have other health problems, including muscular dystrophy, make it easier to start treatment directly, and this helps in returning the foot to normal during normal growth of the child.

How can claw foot be prevented?

Women taking care of themselves during pregnancy may contribute in some way to avoiding the disease. Doctors gave some advice to pregnant women, which helps reduce the risk of congenital deformities, including clubfoot, and the signs are as follows:

Avoid smoking or babysitting smokers.
Avoid drinking alcohol completely.
Follow the doctors’ instructions regarding the medications used during pregnancy.

Causes of claw foot

Doctors have not yet disclosed the main cause of claw foot or clubfoot, but there are auxiliary factors that may be genetic or environmental that affect the child’s infection with the disease and increase the incidence of infection in males. Among the causes of deformed clubfoot are the following:

The genetic history of clubfoot disease plays an important role in the infection of the child, whether newborn or older, with this disease, especially if one of the parents suffers from claw foot.
The cause can be congenital, which is the patient’s exposure to a defect in the skeletal system, which leads to a claw foot infection accompanied by one of the other diseases, such as dysplasia of the hip development or the problem of spina bifida.
Sometimes the cause of the disease is a health problem or a disorder affecting the muscles or spinal cord.
The lack of amniotic fluid or the absence of it around the baby in the womb during pregnancy is a risk factor that may lead to clubfoot.
Environmental factors also play a role in clawfoot infection in children, especially if the mother smokes or is in an environment of smokers.

What are the complications of claw foot?

Clubfoot usually does not cause pain in the child, but it can cause problems in walking or standing straight as a result of the twisting of the foot inward towards the bottom. The child may also find some other problems, including

Having trouble moving normally due to a lack of flexibility in the foot.
Infection with the disease usually causes the affected foot to be short, so walking or movement is not balanced.
Clawfoot can affect shoe size because the affected foot is about one inch lower than the healthy foot.

In the event of neglecting the treatment of claw foot disease, the incidence of complications for the child increases, and they are also more serious, as follows:

Arthritis is one of the symptoms that cause danger to the patient and he is exposed to it if treatment is delayed.
The child may not be able to walk normally. In the advanced stages of the disease, he walks on the ankle or the front part of the foot because he is unable to use the sole of the foot.
The presence of abnormal growth of the calf muscles, which negatively affects the way the child walks and needs treatment for long periods, and this certainly affects his psychological condition.

Claw foot treatment

Clubfoot causes a child’s foot to twist, and this is because the tissues that connect the bones and muscles did not grow normally and became shorter than usual, this disease may affect newborns or children between 2-3 years.

Early detection of claw foot and starting treatment, especially in the first weeks of birth, contribute to overcoming the fatigue period faster and recovering more quickly. Here are some of the treatments used in the treatment of claw foot:

Using a splint or cast: Doctors use a splint to adjust the curvature in the child’s foot because in newborns the adjustment is easier. The doctor places the splint for the child inside a mold to fix it. The splint is changed at regular intervals and developments are monitored through x-rays.
Brace: Doctors use the brace to keep the foot at a correct angle during the casting of the child, and it always makes the foot return to its original position, especially after the child begins to walk. The brace can remain with the child for three months to ensure that the foot returns to its normal position.
Surgical operations: In severe cases that do not respond to splint treatment, doctors resort to surgery by placing the tendons or ligaments causing the disease in their normal form. After the operation, the child needs to wear a splint for up to two months, and then a brace for about a year.

Treatment of claw foot in children has more than one form in order for the child to get rid of this difficult disease. There are many attempts by doctors to return the foot to its full nature after clubfoot, but this is difficult, but in the best case, the child can walk better and wear normal shoes.

The duration of wearing claw foot shoes

After the surgical procedure is performed for the claw foot patient, which is a lengthening of the Achilles tendon in order to return – to some extent – to a normal position, the child begins to recover after a period of about three weeks, after which a shoe called orthotic shoes is worn for up to three months after the child takes off the splint.

In 3 months during which the child wears shoes, he must adhere to them about 23 hours a day. After this period has passed, the child can wear shoes only during sleep in order to better protect the foot, and the affected child can practice the rest of the daily activities normally. The treatment of claw foot may last until the age of four years.

Newborn claw feet

Claw foot infection in newborns comes to every child in a thousand, according to recent statistics, and it is mostly due to a genetic defect that causes the tendons of the foot to shorten and the foot bends inwards in the lower direction, which causes movement and walking disorders in children.

There are a lot of advice given by doctors to mothers whose child has been infected with claw feet, including following up with the doctor during the months of pregnancy to ensure the safety of the fetus, especially if the disease has a back history in the family, and you should avoid smoking or deal with smokers during pregnancy. Early detection of clubfoot is one of the factors that help the child recover faster.

More than one type of treatment for claw feet for newborns has been found, which has proven to be very effective in treating the foot in a great way, especially if it is started early to follow the doctors’ instructions.