• Experts warn against removing corrective footwear early 

Annually, around 300 to 400 children are born with club feet in Sri Lanka, Consultant Community Physician and National Programme Manager for Maternal and Child Morbidity and Mortality Surveillance at the Family Health Bureau, Prof Kapila Jayaratne said.

Addressing a seminar, Prof Jayaratne said yesterday (03) that all children born with the condition can be successfully treated and cured. He noted that the programme to manage and treat clubfoot is being carried out jointly by the Association of Community Physicians, the Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the international Miracle Feet project, and Humanity and Inclusion. 

Prof Jayaratne noted that clubfoot is a congenital condition where a baby’s foot is turned inward or downward due to abnormal development during pregnancy. He said the programme is implemented in coordination with the Health Ministry and hospital system, and is active across several hospitals, including the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children (LRH), the National Hospitals in Galle and Kandy, and the Teaching Hospitals in Peradeniya, Batticaloa and Jaffna.

He noted this year’s (2026) theme for the World Clubfoot Day is “Identify early, treat early, and allow children to run and play freely.” 

Orthopaedic Surgeon at the LRH, Dr Suren Wijesinghe said that clubfoot is one of the most common congenital foot deformities seen at birth. He said that before the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka recorded around 400,000 live births annually, with about 400 children born with club feet each year. Around 50 per cent of these cases involve both feet. Dr Wijesinghe said that before Covid-19, around 600 children with clubfoot were being treated in Sri Lanka at any given time. 

He said the condition can be fully corrected if proper treatment is followed. Dr Wijesinghe explained the standard global treatment is the Ponseti method, a non-surgical approach that corrects the deformity through gentle manipulation, and serial casting and bracing. He said the treatment has two phases, which are the correction phase - lasting around six weeks, followed by a maintenance phase that continues until about the age of four. He noted that during the maintenance phase, children have to wear special corrective shoes to maintain the corrected position of the foot. 

However, Dr Wijesinghe said that a relapse could occur if the maintenance phase is not properly followed, particularly when parents stop using the corrective footwear once the child starts to walk. He lamented that many parents assume the condition is cured at that stage, but stressed that the use of corrective shoes should continue until at least till the child is four years of age. He added that while identifying and initiating treatment for children with clubfoot is not a major challenge, maintaining long-term compliance remains an issue in some cases.