Amongst the many things nobody warned you about becoming a parent is that how you carry your children may be the reason you feel tired, aching, and in pain. Many of you will have carried your children on one hip, which creates muscle imbalances from your foot to your neck and doesn't go away once you stop. In my physiotherapy practice, I see many women, grandmothers, and carers of young children every day who often describe their body as “feeling broken”, and it’s their foot pain that brings them to me!

Once your child has sufficient head control, many right-hand dominant women will commonly carry their child on their left hip to keep their right hand free for doing tasks. This left-sided child-carrying pattern is so familiar that we wouldn’t think anything of it. Once your child becomes heavier, the pattern may switch to carrying on your right side, so I have included my advice and exercises for both sides of the body.

Considering how long you may have carried each child; it can be three years or more for each child. This cumulative strain on your body can add up as your family grows and your body aches.

The cumulative effect of carrying on one hip can have a profound impact on your ability to enjoy activities such as sports, running, hiking, gardening, or working out in the gym, as the activities you once enjoyed before children may make your body feel worse. You may have lost power in your foot, have trouble climbing stairs, or complain of sore hips, back or neck pain or headache.

Don’t despair! There is hope!

Understanding the problem is key

Left-sided child-carrying pattern

To solve this problem, you must understand the asymmetrical pattern of muscle imbalance throughout your whole body and its impact on your movement, which requires a targeted approach. So, let’s unpack a left-sided child-carrying pattern as viewed from behind.

The white lines show the direction of the hips and the loading in the feet.

The orange lines indicate the muscle groups that have become tight causing you pain and loss of mobility. Let’s start at the hips as this is where everything goes wrong!

Notice the small white arrow indicating a shift of the hips to the left, which elevates the left hip and displaces the load beyond the outside of the left foot and inside of the right foot, as shown by the long white arrows.

The outside of left foot can become locked, restricting three important foot movements. When this happens, the foot loses power when performing a heel rise, doesn’t allow rolling through the foot, your big toe aches, and your foot feels stiff and sore. The muscles down the outside of the lower leg overwork trying to stop you from rolling your ankle, and contribute to the stiffness in the left foot.

The inside of the right foot can become overloaded as it rolls inwards, increasing the work of the arch- supporting muscles along the inside of the lower leg.

The right hip abductors shift the hips to the left and can become painful and stiff. The left hip adductors in the inner thigh become tight, causing pain and loss of mobility in the hip and knee.

Carrying on your hip requires the pelvis to be maintained in an elevated position when the foot leaves the ground during walking. To stabilise the hip and pelvis, the outside thigh muscles below the hip, and the side trunk muscles above the pelvis, become overloaded and painful resulting in left hip, knee, lower back pain, and stiffness.

Your shoulder and neck absorb considerable strain as the carrying shoulder sits in a forward and inwardly rotated position to keep your child against your body.

The forward position of your shoulder strains the muscles that connect your shoulder blade to your upper neck, which not only gives you shoulder and rib pain, but also locks up your neck on both sides.

Let’s not forget the men who have their own problems from carrying children on their forearms or shoulders which overloads their biceps muscles. Many fathers, including buff gym junkies, suffer from biceps tenosynovitis, where the biceps tendon sheath in the front of the shoulder becomes inflamed.

The solution!

Central carrying

This solution helps women and men avoid wrecking themselves.

Many parents start off carry their newborn centrally in a Baby Bjorn or similar device.

Once your child has adequate head control, carrying your child centrally on a hip seat that slopes toward you, distributes the load equally through your hips, pelvis, and legs. You can easily swap hands when supporting your child and have them facing towards or away from you.

Some hip seats come with additional attachments to assist feeding, and carrying front and rear, from 0-48 months such as the Ergonomic Hip Seat Baby Carrier.

Targeted stretching: left-sided child-carrying pattern

The stretches shown below are for a left-sided child carrying pattern and are designed with busy mums in mind so you can work them into your day such as the rare moment you sit down, standing at the kitchen bench, while you clean your teeth, in the car or in the supermarket.

WARNING: Stretch only to discomfort, not pain. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Deep breathe whilst stretching. Stop the exercise and consult your therapist if your symptoms worsen or your experience pins and needles or numbness.

Hand behind back chest stretch:

Step 1: Lift shoulders, roll shoulders back, and relax your shoulders. Repeat after any repetitive forward movements of your shoulders.

Step 2: Clasp your hands behind you, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and gently move your arms back behind you.

Restore mobility

Stretching alone won’t be sufficient to fully resolve your child-carrying pattern. You will also need to work with a qualified allied health practitioner who can assist you to restore your joint mobility using manual therapy including treatment of trigger points, myofascial release, and joint mobilisation. The guide below can assist your practitioner.

Test both feet to identify a locked lateral column as shown below:

*To learn more about how to test and restore movement in the lateral column of the foot, quickly and effortlessly, your allied health practitioner is welcome to download my free online course at www.afaat.com.au.

With the right help

Your aching body can usually be restored with targeted manual therapy and exercise in five 45-minute treatments, so you can get back to what you love doing.

What about the lefties?

You are way too tired to reverse the images in your head to apply them to a right-sided child-carrying pattern, so I’ve done it for you.

Right-sided child-carrying pattern

The white lines show the direction of the hips and the loading in the feet.

The orange lines indicate the muscle groups which have become tight causing you feel pain and loss of mobility. Let’s start at the hips as this is where everything goes wrong!

Targeted stretching: right-sided child-carrying pattern

The stretches shown below are for a right-sided child-carrying pattern and are designed with busy mums in mind, so you can work them into your day such as the rare moment you sit down, standing at the kitchen bench, while you clean your teeth, in the car or in the supermarket.

WARNING: Stretch only to discomfort, not pain. Hold each stretch for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Deep breathe whilst stretching. Stop the exercise and consult your therapist if your symptoms worsen or your experience pins and needles or numbness.

Hand behind back chest stretch:

Step 1: Lift shoulders, roll shoulders back, and relax your shoulders. Repeat after any repetitive forward movements of your shoulders.

Step 2: Clasp your hands behind you, squeeze your shoulder blades together, and gently move your arms back behind you.

Restore mobility

Stretching alone won’t be sufficient to fully resolve your child-carrying pattern. You will also need to work with a qualified allied health practitioner who can assist you to restore your joint mobility using manual therapy including treatment of trigger points, myofascial release, and joint mobilisation. The guide below can assist your practitioner.

Test both feet to identify a locked lateral column as shown below:

*To learn more about how to test and restore movement in the lateral column of the foot, quickly and effortlessly, your allied health practitioner is welcome to download my free online course at www.afaat.com.au

With the right help

Your aching body can usually be restored with targeted manual therapy and exercise in five 45-minute treatments, so you can get back to what you love doing.