21 Dec Have you noticed your child W-Sitting all the time

Wondering how to correct your child’s W-sititng

W-sitting describes the posture when a child sits on the floor with their knees bend and feet behind so that their legs make the letter W. Their feet could either be pointing backwards or turned inwards or turned outwards.
Left uncorrected, W-sitting results in tight hip muscles, tight calf muscles, knock kneed posture when walking, tip toe walking or duck-footed walking or pigeon-toed walking which in turns leads to a child frequently tripping on their feet and falling. As Paediatric Physiotherapists, we are often correcting feet posture by casting a child’s feet for 6-8 weeks. The outcomes of casting are great, however, it would be better to stop your child from W- sitting to begin with.

Here are 3 Ways to Discourage W- Sitting:
1. Cross leg Sit. Correct your child’s leg posture by helping them to learn to cross their legs when sitting on the floor. Remind them to always sit with their legs crossed when sitting on the floor.

2. Long Leg Sit. If your child struggles to sit cross legged on the floor, the other option is to encourage them to sit with their knees straight out, in front of them when sitting on the floor.

3. High Sit. Provide a child sized chair and table for your child so that they can sit on a chair to play at the table instead of being on the floor. Make sure that your child sits on the chair with their feet flat on the ground, hips and knees at 90 degrees.

Try out the 3 Strategies above today and DM us to let us know if it helped your child to correct their W-sitting.

If you are concerned about your child’s foot posture when walking, ring My Favourite Physio on (02) 9790 4233 to speak to one fo our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists today! Early Intervention is key to correcting foot postures.

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