Youth should put best foot forward when returning to school

School is starting and you know what that means for your children: many of them will be wearing shoes for the first time in almost three months. Complaining about shoes not fitting and buying new ones are, like football and getting up before 11 a.m., all part of the rites of fall for parents.

As a podiatrist, I am happy with almost any kind of shoes your children wear as long as they fit properly. To make sure shoes fit properly you must measure your child's feet. All shoe stores (and only some of the mega-department stores) do a great job measuring feet using any of the available devices.

For proper fit, make sure your child is standing for the measurement and measure to the tip of the longest toe. Since your child is going to run and play even in dress shoes, make sure shoes are at least one half to one size larger than the foot measures. The foot elongates just a little when it hits the ground and you do not want the tip of the longest toe to hit the end of the shoe.

If your child is prone to blisters, cracking of the skin, odors or sweaty feet, then avoid plastic or other manmade shoe materials. Leather or canvas shoes can absorb some of the moisture and keep the feet drier.

As a general rule, avoid wearing the same pair of shoes two days in a row to allow them to dry out between uses. Wearing socks can also keep the feet drier, especially if the socks are designed to "wick"

moisture from the foot. Sporting good stores have wicking socks and the most famous brand is Thor-Lo, but there are others.

If your child (or you for that matter) has an odor problem that is not helped with athletes' foot cream, it could be due to a particular bacteria and not a fungus. These bacteria cause the foot to glow coralred when examined in a darkened treatment room when the foot is examined with a special ultraviolet lamp called a Wood's Lamp.

Examining the foot is quick and painless with the lamp, so make sure your podiatrist or pediatrician has one before you go. We have one in each office but they are not all that common. With the right diagnosis the cure is quick and easy.

With shoe wearing also comes a reminder of ingrown nails and warts that went unnoticed in summer sandals. Podiatrists tend not to treat ingrown nails with courses of oral antibiotics. We recognize the problem is an ingrown nail and the pain is immediately stopped. The problem cured by trimming back the edge of the nail, usually with a little Novocain (actually Xylocaine).

We pride ourselves on treating ingrown nails in just one visit. Ingrown nails are very common. By the time you read this I will have already treated at least one football player from each of our local Simi and Conejo high schools.

Warts on the top of the foot can be treated with freezing in your pediatrician's office. Warts on the bottom, called plantar warts, are much deeper and are usually resistant to freezing. In your podiatrist's

office these are treated more aggressively, but not necessarily with Xylocaine.

Children can have problems and pain with both flat feet and bunions. These have treatments, both surgical and non-surgical, and need to be examined by a podiatrist who has experience with children. My partner and I have brought to the Conejo Valley some very innovative treatments for this condition and you could do worse than having one of us check out any feet in question.

I wish you all a great year and, remember, it should not hurt for your children to think on their feet.

Drs. Michael Zapf and Darren Payne have a podiatry practice with offices in Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks. They can be reached at (818) 707-3668. Their website is www.conejofeet.com.