Best for Baby | Expert Baby Advice & Support for Overwhelmed Mums
Oct 2, 2026 · 25 min · 9 segments
Has your newborn been diagnosed with positional talipes? Or have you noticed their little foot (or both feet) curling inwards and staying there? In this episode, paediatric physiotherapist Lisa…
Positional talipes is a condition of the newborn foot where the little foot is pointing inwards and upwards.
It's a really common condition and I'm seeing more and more of these cases that haven't been picked up at birth and therefore not treated.
And in some cases have been picked up at birth, but very vague advice given to parents and so ineffectively treated.
something called clubfoot, which is something that we don't treat as physiotherapists.
However, positional talipes is where the foot is flexible and it can move out of that position occasionally, but most of the time it gets stuck in that position.
we've got the most common type, which is where one or both feet point downwards.
It's that position of pointing the foot and the toes downwards, but also, and this is the really critical part.
And the thing that we really have to work hard at treating is it curves the foot inwards so that the toes move towards each other.
It's called positional talipes equinovirus, which that equinovirus describes that position that the foot has gone into.
And this is something that we see quite often and is usually picked up at birth because they do newborn screening in most countries.
They're usually looking mostly for the structural type because that is a more serious condition that requires treatment to take place quite soon after birth.
And while they are looking there, they will be able to tell if the baby has this more flexible version that is treated through certain techniques that physiotherapists can teach you.
However, I have noticed more and more often these days, I'm being called to treat babies sometimes for unrelated conditions.
And I noticed that they have a positional telepies that was either never picked up or the parents were told about it and given very vague advice on what to do with it.
And as a result, the correction or the treatment hasn't been entirely effective.
So it is becoming in my clinical practice, something that I am working with more and more, and I'm finding that the longer it is left or the longer it is untreated or mistreated, the greater the effect it could have on the foot.
and the other type of positional talipes is its fancy name is positional talipes calcaneo vulgus which just describes the opposite position of the foot so here either one or both feet are flexed upwards.
Positional talipes is a condition of the newborn foot where the little foot is pointing inwards and upwards.
It's a really common condition and I'm seeing more and more of these cases that haven't been picked up at birth and therefore not treated.
And in some cases have been picked up at birth, but very vague advice given to parents and so ineffectively treated.
something called clubfoot, which is something that we don't treat as physiotherapists.
However, positional talipes is where the foot is flexible and it can move out of that position occasionally, but most of the time it gets stuck in that position.
we've got the most common type, which is where one or both feet point downwards.
It's that position of pointing the foot and the toes downwards, but also, and this is the really critical part.
And the thing that we really have to work hard at treating is it curves the foot inwards so that the toes move towards each other.
It's called positional talipes equinovirus, which that equinovirus describes that position that the foot has gone into.
And this is something that we see quite often and is usually picked up at birth because they do newborn screening in most countries.
They're usually looking mostly for the structural type because that is a more serious condition that requires treatment to take place quite soon after birth.
And while they are looking there, they will be able to tell if the baby has this more flexible version that is treated through certain techniques that physiotherapists can teach you.
However, I have noticed more and more often these days, I'm being called to treat babies sometimes for unrelated conditions.
And I noticed that they have a positional telepies that was either never picked up or the parents were told about it and given very vague advice on what to do with it.
And as a result, the correction or the treatment hasn't been entirely effective.
So it is becoming in my clinical practice, something that I am working with more and more, and I'm finding that the longer it is left or the longer it is untreated or mistreated, the greater the effect it could have on the foot.
and the other type of positional talipes is its fancy name is positional talipes calcaneo vulgus which just describes the opposite position of the foot so here either one or both feet are flexed upwards.
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