Foot Fact Fun

April is National Foot Health Awareness Month, and at Goldsmith Podiatry, we want to take this opportunity to help families incorporate some educational material about podiatric health into your home lessons. With the coronavirus keeping us all at home in Manhattan, some new material to switch up your children’s daily school curriculum may be helpful.

There are a few ways you can use the information here to create fun ways to learn about feet:

·         Host a Jeopardy game by making up questions and creating a board with dollar values on each square. Categories might include foot structure, shoe sense, historic tidbits. Offer a prize for the top scorer.

·         Put together a true/false or multiple-choice quiz.

·         Place topics in a box or bag such as Preventing Athlete’s Foot, Sports Injuries, Heel Pain, Shoes. Have your children draw out a topic (without looking) and take an hour to go online and research their topic. Let each child give a presentation on what they find. Encourage creativity with visuals, statistics, etc.

In the Know

Below are some facts you can use as a jumping-off point for your material. You can find more at https://www.foot.com/foot-facts/.

Structure:

·         A pair of feet contain 52 bones—that’s nearly a quarter of all the bones in your body.

·         There are 250,000 sweat glands in your feet capable of producing up to ½ pint of perspiration in a day.

·         Your feet act as an early warning system for your body with many diseases including arthritis, diabetes, and circulation issues often showing first symptoms in your feet.

Shoe Fun:

·         The ancient Romans were the first to make right and left shoes—before that, shoes could be worn on either foot.

·         Most people have one foot that’s larger than the other—shoes should always fit the larger foot.

·         Walking/running shoes may still look good but be worn out on the inside. It’s advisable to replace them between 300 and 500 miles of use.

Health Tips:

·         Toenails should never be filed with rounded tips in order to avoid ingrown nails.

·         Maintaining a healthy weight can help prevent several foot problems, including flat feet and plantar fasciitis.

·         Wearing shoes in public places and never sharing shoes, socks, towels, or other items that touch another person’s feet can keep you from getting athlete’s foot.

In addition to instilling good foot health habits in your children, impress upon them the importance of not ignoring foot pain. If anyone in your family is experiencing discomfort or other unusual podiatric symptoms, have them contact our Upper West Side office at (212) 877-1002 to consult with our podiatrists, Dr. Howard Goldsmith or Dr. Rosanna Troia.