My son has flat feet. I took him to the doctor when he was a little boy and the doctor’s attitude was “he’s fine, he can walk okay “.
I took him to see my podiatrist as a private patient.She took a very different attitude. Because she was NHS registered, she was able to refer him to the podiatrist at the hospital. They made shoe inserts for him to provide some sort arch under his feet. He returned at intervals as his feet grew, gave him exercises to do and recommended ankle boots rather than shoes to support his ankles in a more upright position. We were advised that not treating his feet would result in back and knee pain in later years.
He is tall and does suffer a little with his back, particularly when he has been on his feet all day.He wasn’t very conscientious about doing the exercises. I encouraged him to walk with his feet straight rather than at “10 to 2 “. Apparently, feet splaying is all to do with compensating for short tendons (I think) and the exercises are to stretch them. He naturally walks with his feet straight now.
The shoe inserts weren’t ideal as he always felt like he was walking out of his shoes. The little toad was resistant to having ankle boots. Now he is an adult, I see he has some ankle boots and he has visited podiatrists of his own volition.
He was advised also that regarding exercise to keep fit, jogging and distance running were not ideal for him because of his feet.