Bow legs while running
When running, the bow legs are the same as when standing. When the child starts to walk bow legs are quite normal and in most cases have no disease value. They even help during the first attempts at walking, as they give the gait more stability and thus more security.
In the course of development, bow legs normally recede further and further and even become knock-knees in toddlers until they should become straight again approximately from school age. The most common cause of bow legs in toddlers is the normal growth process. In babies, the bones are still partly made of cartilage and are not yet completely ossified.
As they grow and ossify, the legs are prepared for walking and standing. During this process, the angles of the thigh (femur) and the tibia (shinbone) to each other change. Especially in very pronounced forms, however, a pathological (disease-related) cause must also be considered.
A vitamin D deficiency can lead to demineralization, i.e. softening of the bone structure. A resulting calcium deficiency plays a central role in this process. This can be quickly recognized by a laboratory examination and remedied by calcium administration.
In the pediatrics this illness, which is called Rachitis, is prevented by general Vitamin D gift starting from the 2. life week. Furthermore, the Blount syndrome is a rare cause. This is a deformation of the shinbone due to premature closure of the internal growth plate. Also excluded are the brittle bone disease (osteogenesis imperfecta) and osteochondromas (benign cartilaginous tumors).
Symptoms
The symptoms must be externally recognized. Due to the changed angle between the upper and lower leg, the child’s two legs look as if they are forming an “O”. This can sometimes look very concise and understandably worry the parents.
However, since this is part of the natural development process, no permanent damage must be expected.However, if the bandy legs persist beyond the physiological phase, further symptoms may appear in the musculoskeletal system. On the one hand, the bow legs’ O-position leads to an increased load on the inner meniscus (the cartilaginous coating of the knee joint surface on the inside). In the long term, this can lead to (premature) arthrosis in the knee joint.
It can also lead to so-called knee-lowering feet. In this case, the inner sides of the foot are lowered towards the inside-bottom. In this way the children try to compensate for the walking on the outside of the foot, which is caused by the bow legs.
Furthermore it can come to posture damage in the upper body. This occurs above all when the bandy legs only persist on one side. This results in a pelvic obliquity with a low point on the side with the bow legs (because the leg is shorter here due to the curvature). This can cause a scoliotic malposition of the spine. This means that the spinal column takes on a curvature, as in scoliosis, but this can be corrected by correcting the pelvic obliquity – in contrast to true scoliosis.