The "W" sit

Wondering if any of you correct the children who tend to sit in the "w" position?
I had never heard of it until a couple years ago when my son was in preschool. Talking to a few preschool and kindergarten teachers, it seems to be something that is being watched for?
I have a little girl in my care who is REALLY pigeon toed, and walks on tippy toes alot (she is 2). I have been correcting it (all I have to say now is "fix your legs!"). Sent home a pamphlet with all parents who have kids under 5. I have noticed though that come Monday morning, she is doing it almost all the time. It takes me a week to get her to break the habit, just in time for her to go home. I don't think mom and dad really cared. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

I teach it in dancing, always have at least one foot forward. What I've been told by my mother who is an elementary school teacher is it delays or hurts the development of their knees and hips. It's a big no-no at my parents home, and at mine as well. All we say is feet in front please.

Here's two articles to read: http://www.pediatricservices.com/parents/pc-22.htm and http://www.physioquestions.com/2011/...-it-ok-or-not/

I have a 3 and half year old in my care who has sat in w and walked on tippy toes since day 1. I' have corrected both non-stop for almost 3 years, and it doesn't change. I only feel like I'm nagging him for nothing. His parents are not too concerned. The toe-walking concerns me more, since he has trouble walking once he puts shoes on.....

gcj - what we do for dancing exercises - have the child walk on the balls of their feet in a circle around a room or outside. Then have them walk on their heels (no pounding though), then on the insides of their feet, and the outsides of their feet. My mom and I (we both own our own dance schools) have found that this helps a bit with some of the kids. We also do skipping, double skipping, side stepping. I do this with my daycare kids as well, add some fun, upbeat music, and they love it!!!

You definitely want to put a stop to the tip toe walking and the parents should be on board too. As a parent of a tip toe walker, they don't want to go through what we did. There could be medical reasons they walk on their toes or it could just be a really bad habit. It is normal to do a bit of toe walking until age 2...after that it is a sign of possibly something else going on. For my son it was a bad habit. At age 5 he went through extensive testing, long needles put into his legs to listen to the muscles, MRIs, cat scans, blood tests, etc...you name it, he had it...at age 5. It was absolutely heart breaking and they couldn't find any medical reason for it and to this day (he's 10 now) they still have no idea why he does it. He was casted for 2 months to stretch out his achilles tendons because they were so tight it limited his movements in his feet. Every 10 days we would go to the children's hospital and they would take his cast off, stretch his legs out more and recast in the new stretch. It was very very painful for him and heartbreaking to watch him go through that. After his casts came off he had to go to physio for 6 months to continue to stretch his legs out. His feet and walking are a lot better now 5 years later but it's taken this long for it to be that way. So...my advice is to make the parents see what is happening and to seek medical advice if it's not being corrected because if it is a medical reason for them doing this, it needs to be addressed and if it's habitual, they need to break it so their kids don't have to go through what my son did. We didn't notice he was walking on his toes until his kindergarten teacher pointed it out to us. We were always watching where he was going because he was so active and in a hurry, we weren't watching how he was getting there and we really wish we had noticed it earlier so we could of prevented everything he had to go through at such a young age. The Dr. wanted to cut his legs open to slice the achillies tendon to lengthen it but we wouldn't let them, we wanted to try all other options. Surgey for this is very very painful and a long recovery and is not 100% garenteed to completely fix the problem forever so we weren't willing to do that to our child at that point. He had already been through hell.

I don't correct the W sit. Heck I still sit that way

i don't go into hysterics so to speak when I see a child sitting that way but if we are doing an activity I make sure they are sitting properly with their legs out in front of them usually or directly under them with legs together. I have a 15 month old right now that has dislocated hips and is beyond flexible but of course unsteady. She has a harness she used to wear all the time but by the time she started care she only needed to wear it at bedtime so one less thing for me to deal with in daycare but I do have to be conscious of how she is moving since she can so easily move in ways that will damage the progress already made. My own daughter has special needs and ankle issues. She pronates in to the point of walking on the insides of her feet and has AFO supports to correct it or at least minimize it but she has gotten where she doesn't like wearing them so time to get them recasted probably. Her heel cords were very tight as a baby and she could not make an actual foot so we did a lot of exercises to push the foot up into the correct position while massaging the the area just above the heel. All of her muscles are weak/over flexible - called hypotonia so she does fall sometimes for no reason and can not support herself with her arms when she does - she takes a full face plant in the true meaning but at other times the muscles will tighten and her arm strength is really good she just can't sustain it for long periods of time unless she is upset and adrenelin is doing half the work. I have another child in care that W sits all the time but again his range of flexibility is so great that he can sit in ways the average person can only dream of so it is hard to correct him. I also like to have them sit at the table for lessons instead of on the floor and then it gives all of the muscles a chance to work in a different way. Again I don't think anyone mentions these issues to parents until after the habit is well established as opposed to a doctor telling them ok when your child reaches this milestone start watching for him to do this and start correcting it because...

For what it is worth- I would be more concerned with exclusive toe walking than 'w' sitting. I was a gymnast and still am pretty flexible.

Hello,
I agree with you. My daughter was in centre care and I was busy working full time and attending to 3 young children at home that I did not notice her sitting in this position. I was only told of this concern on her last day of daycare when after receiving feedback from the resource consultant who was supporting her on her speech mentioned that the teachers noticed this. I got upset and wondered why did they not say anything to me her parent? I notice my daughter walking with feet inward. She is very active but will often fall or lose balance. I thought it was because of her hearing and history of ear infections. After tubes were placed in her ears-she was still falling. Then when I was given observations of my daughter the W position was a concern. I don't get why these teachers did not mention this to me. I did research and realized how important it is to correct this. I now remind her to sit on her bum bum. I am now looking into having her see a orthopaedic doctor. It would have been nice to even just get and information pamphlet regarding this position. As parents we are so busy with day to day activities, obligations, and responsibilities that we miss these important things when it comes to our children. It is nice when someone else points out these things for us to stop and see. I am so glad to be home now and see.

I currently have a dcg in my care who constantly sits like this. It drives me crazy! I dont think the parents know it is potentially harmful and I know it has affected the little girl already as her hips crack when I pick her up, she looks bowlegged and pigeon toed to me and has horrible balance. I want to say something to the mother, but really dont know how to bring it up to her without offending her. I always correct the girl's legs when she is sitting and she does it less now, but I think it is in her best interest if she was corrected at home too. How would you ladies bring it up to the parent...or would you?

omg ladies, thanks so much for writing about this cause I had no idea! And my son does this all the time. He is 3. I'm definitely going to be on him from now on. Glad I read this post!

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Originally Posted by Ashleigh

I currently have a dcg in my care who constantly sits like this. It drives me crazy! I dont think the parents know it is potentially harmful and I know it has affected the little girl already as her hips crack when I pick her up, she looks bowlegged and pigeon toed to me and has horrible balance. I want to say something to the mother, but really dont know how to bring it up to her without offending her. I always correct the girl's legs when she is sitting and she does it less now, but I think it is in her best interest if she was corrected at home too. How would you ladies bring it up to the parent...or would you?

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What you could do is print off the articles that were shared above and give them to all of the parents with the idea you just learned how bad this is for the kids and that you are going to be extra vigilent with them at daycare when you see a child sitting this way and then suggest that they do it at home too so it becomes reinforced in both places.

Then at least you have made the parents aware, showed them what to look for and what the dangers are. There isn't much more you can do beyond that.

My DD has been doing the W as well....I've been trying to be ontop of it by just saying "fix your legs please" she's also super clumsy so I'm sure that doesn't help her balance!

Ya for me it depends on the age and how LONG they would be spending in that position .... infants who lean back from a crawl into a W sit for their 60 second attention span to look at something before crawling off I just 'ignore' but as soon as they are sitting for many minutes to explore intently at something I too just gently 'remind' them to stretch out their legs to avoid the hips being in that position for too long.

Yes, of course it depends. I let a once-in-a-while thing slide. But you can tell, I think, when this position has become the way that they sit naturally. And that's when I will correct.
Ashleigh; I just printed out some info off the computer, with a graphic of what I mean by "W-sit". I ask for the parents co-operation in correcting, but that's about all you can do. The little girl that I referred to earlier never really did get any better. I just don't think mom and dad saw it as an issue.