If you notice your baby having bowed legs, the question is, should you be alarmed? The answer is a NO. Newborns have bowed legs and in-turned feet due to the position that they lay in the womb. Because no "standing room" exists in your womb, your baby naturally draws his legs up over his stomach and arches his feet inward. This position makes the leg bones to be twisted inward, resulting in the combination of bowed legs and in-turned feet. These curves virtually always correct themselves. On the first year your pediatrician would check your baby's leg growth to make certain these curvatures are straightening out normally. You could help your baby's feet and legs straighten out by discouraging sleep in the fetal position. Babies love to sleep on their tummies with their feet and legs curled underneath them as they did in the womb. By repeatedly drawing out his feet from under him while sleeping, you'll help your baby stop this habit. Besides these normal, self-correcting bone curvatures, one or both feet may be turned in since the front of the foot is curved inwards in relation to the back of the foot, a condition known as forefoot adduction. Your doctor would talk about this type of foot problem on your baby's first checkup. If, without a good deal of force, you can stretch the front of the foot in line with the back of the foot, only a small problem exists. This problem is readily treated by periodic stretching exercises which your doctor will present to you. When you stroke the skin on the outside of your infant's foot and he voluntarily unbends his foot, no deformity exists and no treatment is needed. If his foot is not straightening out normally on the first few months, your doctor may recommend orthopedic treatment.
© 2011 Athena Goodlight