Painful foot

My 5-year-old son often complains of a sore left foot. It looks normal and he is generally well with a good appetite. He enjoys school. What could be the cause of the painful foot?

Probably the commonest cause of sore feet is poorly fitting shoes. If this has been checked and excluded, a fracture or a foreign body may be present. So an examination by your doctor and possibly an X-ray would be warranted. He/she can also look for any other causes but these are extremely rare. I can only recall 2 cases where a sore foot (with no other joints involved) was the way a more general disease presented.

Pain around the ankles, especially with feet that roll in could be helped by a podiatrist. However if the pain is in a foot and there is no obvious abnormality would probably represent poorly fitting shoes, a fracture in the foot or foreign body. Plantar warts on the sole of the foot are painful but obvious.