Everything You Need To Know About Bowlegs And Knock Knees

Should I Be Worried?

Are you worried about the bowed appearance of your toddler’s legs? Are you worried about whether it would affect them while walking? Don’t worry! Bowlegs are the conditions commonly affecting children until two years of age.

Following that they may experience knock knees that may last till they turn six. Both bowlegs and knock knees are normal conditions affecting toddlers and require no treatment.

However, they are rarely occurred due to any underlying health conditions like arthritis, infections, tumours, etc. Let us see what these conditions in detail are.

What Are Bowlegs?

When your toddler’s legs appeared to be bowed out, the condition is called bowlegs. In this condition, their knees stay apart while their ankles stay together. Although bowlegs can normally occur while growing up, they can rarely represent the underlying conditions such as Blount disease and rickets.

Symptoms Of Bowlegs

• Knees curved outward
• Awkward walking pattern
• Both legs curve symmetrically
• Clumsiness while walking
• Tripping frequently while walking
• Toes pointing inward

Causes Of Bowlegs

As mentioned earlier, bowlegs are a common condition that is developed while your child is growing. The cause of developing bowlegs is still unknown. However, some children are born with this condition due to space inside the mother’s womb gets tighter while baby is growing up. Having said that, some conditions such as Blount’s disease, rickets, etc. may cause bowlegs in children.

Do Bowlegs Need Treatment?

Bowlegs is a normal condition while the child grows and develops. These conditions improve over time and generally require no treatment. These conditions do not affect your toddlers while crawling, walking, or running. Therefore, they do not require special shoes, braces, or exercises to correct them. However, some underlying conditions may cause bowlegs to have severe forms. This may make their walk a little clumsier and make them fall frequently.

In such cases, doctors will decide the treatment based on several factors like the child’s age, the cause, the extent of the condition, probability of bowlegs affecting your child’s mobility in the future. Based on these factors, doctors will recommend leg braces or osteotomy surgery.

What Are Knock Knees?

Knock knee is a condition in which toddlers’ knees touch but their feet stay apart while standing straight. These conditions commonly occur in children ages between 3 to 6 years. Knock knee is a common condition affecting children while growing up. When your child reaches the age between 8 to 10 years, their knees get straightened on their own.

Causes Of Knock Knees

Like bowlegs, knock knees develops as a normal condition while growing up. However, there are some underlying conditions which can also result in knock knees. These conditions include some genetic conditions like skeletal dysplasia, obesity, rickets, injury to growth areas of shinbone or thighbone, etc.

Diagnosis

Doctors perform physical examination to diagnose bowlegs or knock-knees. Additionally, they suggest x-rays to get advanced information about knee joint.

Do Knock Knees Need Treatment?

Like bowlegs, knock knees need no treatment as it is a normal condition while growing up. According to some studies, by the age 7, children will outgrow this condition. If treatment is needed, doctors will treat the underlying conditions. Severe form of knock knees will need surgical correction like guided growth surgery, osteotomy, etc.

As shoe inserts, physical therapy, or braces are ineffective in treating knock knees, surgery is the only option to change the angle of the affected knee. However, surgery is not recommended for kids under ten years old because knock knees is a normal developmental condition that goes away while growing away.

Knee joint is formed when the femur (thighbone) and the tibia (shinbone) unite. For opting for surgery as the corrective method, the maturity of the child should be considered. When kids are younger, the knee alignment can be changed with the help of growth plate tethering. This is possible as their growth plates are still open and growing. Further, the knee joint will grow at an angle due to the increased size of the growth plate on the untethered side.

As growth plates are not an option in older children, knock knees treatment includes cutting, straightening, and joining the knee joint in place by placing metal implants, pins, screws, and plates.

Though there is a high success rate in both procedures, it is advised that they should be performed only when there is an absolute need based on the appropriate age.

Impact On Daily Life Of The Child

Both knock knees and bowlegs are variations of normal conditions. When they reach their teen years, these conditions will naturally subside, and their legs will straighten. In severe conditions, when the condition is corrected by bracing or corrective shoes, may impact a child’s physical development, and may cause emotional stress.

How To Monitor The Condition?

Both conditions, bowlegs and knock knees affect children while growing up. These conditions will slowly get improve. You can observe your child for 3 to 6 months. Taking photographs at regular intervals is a good way to monitor these conditions.

When To Seek Assistance?

Although bowlegs and knock knees can occur while growing up and are normal, rarely some underlying conditions like rickets can cause these conditions. When you observe the following things, you can seek medical advice.

• The curvature affects only one leg
• The curvature of the legs is extreme
• Children developing these conditions after 10 years of age
• Bowlegs get worse after your child reaches 3 years
• Knock knees get worse after your child reaches 8 years
• Your child complaints of pain while walking
• The child’s height appears shorter than normal
• Your child is limping while walking

Conclusion

If you observe your child with bowlegs or knock knees while they are growing up, please do not worry. Both these conditions are a normal part of the development and will subside on their own. Quite rarely, they are caused due to some underlying conditions. In such cases, you can always seek medical advice.