Always tripping over

has this happened to anyone else's little one?

EVERY time DD walks lately, she falls forward. And I don't mean a stumble - I mean a full on face plant. Several times she has landed flat and had marks on her chin and forehead from the impact. Of course she cries... and cries... and cries. It has gotten to the point where last night she actually reverted to crawling. I've checked her pants and they're not too long. The shoes are the right size and ones she has worn plenty of times before. It's really affecting my happy little girl and I'm at a bit of a loss... so if it has happened or you know why it might be happening, please reply!

MG

Is it possible that she has an ear infection? That can upset her balance.

Does she fall over when she has bare feet? Shoes are actually detrimental to a child's walking. If you're at home, let her run around with no shoes on.

My DS is clumsiness personified when he has shoes on. So we go barefoot as much as possible. Make sure her shoes are very flexible, if the sole is stiff it's not good for her walking.

Perhaps she's trying to walk too fast for her little legs?

:

---

Is it possible that she has an ear infection? That can upset her balance.

---

My first thought too...happened to DS a little while ago. He just started faceplanting and collecting doorways as he went through them etc. Sometimes ear infections have few or no symptoms so might be worth considering.

No, her ears are fine. I've already had them checked. Her tripping is just as bad bare foot. DD only wears those soft "First Shoe" Volleys unless it is a special occassion. I did think about her moving to fast for her legs but she is rather good at running (usually when she is escaping Mummy!)... I thought maybe her eyes were the culprit but I don't know how to get that checked at such a young age...

We saw a paed opthamologists when our twins were around 2 years old at RCH. I am pretty sure that you can get their eyes checked a little earlier- ask your local doc.

my son used to go through stages of tripping over every time his feet would grow or be growing. I always knew to check his shoe sizing again when it started up as they were guranateed to be growing- he used to get bad growing pains to accompany this as well.
The tripping over would last a couple of weeks at a time, until he readjusted and taught his muscles to move again
also when kids grow, the muscle that has just grown has to be taught to operate correctly, so maybe a growth spurt could be to blame

otherwise might be worth seeing a OT- she may be having trouble with muscle tone or even the arch of her foot may be causing her to loose her balance
The Northern hospital have a clinic that you can self refer to to see an OT there.

She may be having trouble with depth perception as well- something to get checked as well. A way to check this is to put two objects the same colour on top of each other and see if she can pick up the top one. i.e a facewasher on top of the same colour towel.

if you have a concern- defintaely worth investigating it.
HTH and let us know how you go
odette

Thanks Odette! That is worth thinking about. I might talk to an OT at work... I think I will make an appointment with the Dr to see about a referral... she has the most awaful sore on her nose from one of her trips!

MG

My son saw a paed opthamologist at 10 months as his eyes where flickering from side to side and my GP assumed he was partially blind as this is apparently evidence that his eyes did not develop "normally" during the pregnancy.

His eyes still flicker now (at 20 months) and we have another check-up in June to check progress but Cooper does not seem to have any major difficulties in his vision. He may need to wear glasses for school but as both DP and I wear glasses, we are not too concerned.

my cousins daughter had this same problem when walking and it turned out to be a middle ear infection.. it took a while for the dr to figure out whats wrong so it could be worth getting the ears checked again.

MG, I would definitely talk to the oT, but I would also take her to the GP for a thorough check. There could be some middle ear problem causing an imbalance.

I hope it's something that's easily remedied!