Does O-shaped legs affect children's height?

Many children now have bow legs due to incorrect walking posture or congenital reasons. In fact, many children see others walking with bow legs, so they become curious and imitate them. If children imitate this for a long time, it will lead to the possibility of O-shaped legs in children. Therefore, there are some sayings that children's O-shaped legs will affect their height development. So, is this statement true or false? Does O-shaped legs affect children's height?

"O-shaped legs" are commonly known as bow legs, medically known as genu valgum, and outward-turned legs are also known as "X-shaped legs", medically known as genu valgum, which is a common deformity in China. The incidence rate is particularly high among adolescents. If young men and women suffer from this kind of lower limb deformity, they will not only lose their beautiful body shape and have difficulty walking, but it will sometimes also affect their ability to join the army, work, and even their love life. Some of them will become depressed and even pessimistic and disgusted with the world.

The main cause of "O"-shaped legs and "X"-shaped legs deformities is rickets in children. A small number of them are sequelae caused by cartilage development disorders, fractures, trauma, osteoma, etc. When children suffer from rickets, due to lack of calcium salts, the cartilage of the epiphyseal hyperplasia cannot ossify normally, and the original bone becomes decalcified and absorbed, causing the bone to soften and unable to withstand the effects of gravity. In addition, the ligaments around the knee joint become loose, losing their support and protection for the bones, resulting in bending and deformation of the calf bones, causing "O" and "X" shaped legs.

This leg deformity not only affects body shape and fitness, but also has a great impact on human health. People often lack awareness of its harm. Genu valgum or valgum disrupts the normal force distribution of the knee joint, increasing the biological stress on one side of the joint and reducing it on the opposite side. Over time, it will cause pain in the knee joint when walking, and joint movement will also be affected, which can easily lead to osteoarthritis of the knee. Correcting this deformity can not only improve body shape, but also improve the imbalanced stress distribution in the knee joint.

In recent years, China has used external fixators plus tibial tuberosity inverted U-shaped osteotomy to perform plastic surgery on "O"-shaped and "X"-shaped legs, and has achieved good therapeutic results.

Regarding the question of whether children's bow legs affect their height, it actually depends on the genetic genes of the parents. If the parents are very tall, then the child will not be too short. If one parent is tall and the other is short, then the child's height will depend on the combined height of the parents. Not all children with bow legs are short. O-legs can be considered a deformed leg shape. Many tall people are also prone to O-legs. However, when children are just learning to walk, parents need to pay more attention to some aspects. Once children have incorrect walking posture, they must correct it in time.