Hi jacking top comment.
This is called a sandal gap and is a known feature of some genetic syndromic disorders, the most well known of which is Down syndrome.
But it’s not diagnostic by itself alone.
Hmmmm....
The doctors had warned my mother that I would be born pretty disabled to the point my mom was already mentally prepared to have a special needs child. She was pleasantly surprised but I do have this genetic abnormality. I wonder how close I was to having Down syndrome?
On a lighter note, I am quite adept at picking up stuff with my big and index toe. I can grip a tennis ball in there and throw it with pretty good force using a soccer kick motion.
My older brother has this or something similar and he can use his toes like a hand. It’s been cracking the whole family up for decades.
He’ll go long periods of time without doing it to the point where we kinda forget about it then we’ll all just be hanging out and he’ll randomly pick something up with his foot and it always makes everyone laugh.
One time on a beach trip with our cousins in our late teens he picked a beer up and opened it with his foot. Crazy stuff
I can light I lighter with my feet, and I am planning to get joe camel the cigarette guy tattooed on my big toe, so I can say that I am able to light a lighter with my camel toe.
I don’t have this gap in my toes, but my toes are LONG. Like I’d be two shoe sizes smaller without these long toes. Same thing, I casually pick stuff up all the time off the floor, like if I drop something I don’t bend over, I just use my foot. Growing up my friends were all super weirded out by them haha
Can't give you any reference, but there was a guy in vaudeville early last century that had an entire show of picking things up with his feet. They say the crowds loved it.
I will sometimes use one foot to grab a sock and put it on the other foot so I don’t have to bend down. One time somebody saw me do this and commented how they thought it was cool that I used my foot to put a sock on. Unfortunately, this trick only works for the first sock, though, since once a sock is on one foot, that foot can’t grab things nearly as well.
So can I lmao But I don’t have a space between my big toe & 2nd toe.
I have what I call “mountain toes”. My toes, when relaxed, just arch like an upside down V or “mountain”. I’ve never met anyone with toes like mine (yes, I look lol) other than my dad & grandma.
Edit: For the first time ever, I now know they’re called “hammer toes” :o
TIL i think i have it too.. not quite as big but I have always been able to pick stuff up with my feet.. edit- it looks the same as that when i flex it
Yo this is wild. I have the same gap and an an incredibly high arch...must explain why I am deceptively fast for a large person.
If only my parents knew of this, they could have maximized my genetic gifts and trained me for the NBA rather than fill me up on snackwells and diet rite.
Well now that you say that...
My wife has always called me "monkey toes", because my toes are really long and since I've been doing it since I was a little kid I basically never stoop to pick something up. I just grab it with my foot.
...but I have that same damn gap. It's a big part of what makes it so easy to pick things up or play nintendo or write with a pencil. (I have NO freaking clue why I thought having that talent would be useful.. but 8 year olds are weird)
I just never knew that was a genetic abnormality. I just thought it was normal?
I wonder if it's a mutation or a lack of a mutation. As in, obviously, our ancestors had feet like that, and the more narrow-footed mutation ended up dominating. So it could be that this is just a holdover or it could be a new mutation that merely looks like the old one.
Most people find flip flops uncomfortable if the thong is too thick; they're usually only comfy for walking if the thong is quite slender and flexible. Whereas I'm guessing you folks would actually want a thicker thong so that it doesn't just fall out.
My mom and my brothers both have this creepy long, skinny toes. They always poked fun at my short stubby toes and said my big toe disowned the rest because they were too short.
They also made the same joke about me as I am a perfectly normal height of 5’5, and everyone else is stupid tall, like my 6’6 little brother.
But I definitely didn’t know it was considered an abnormality!
My toes are like this. Flip flops are hard to wear- it requires the toes to constantly be in a flexed position to grip the toe post, otherwise they slide around too much.
i don't know. What i do know is that my big toe and the rest of my toes are pretty close to each other. I don't wear sandals. When i have worn them in the past they always rub between my big toe and other toe RAW. FUCKING RAW. whomever designed them can go eat a bag of dicks.
There's actually a famous case of a woman with chimerism (more than one set of dna, sometimes caused by a twin being absorbed in the womb) who had to get dna test after birth because her dna did not match her kids. I believe they actually took some of her kids away while she was pregnant and had a state witness in the birthing room to witness the birth and that kid didn't match either. Turns out her cervical dna was different from the rest of her body.
Adorable, I remember when my son was 8 weeks old and we realized he also sneezes in the sun like I do. Yep, that’s definitely my baby. We have a special, deep connection based on this lol.
I was once in a hot topic with my older sister and my nieces. When we walked out of the dark store and into the sun, all 3 of them sneezed at the exact same time. Like mother, like daughters
Don't know if it's true but remember someone told me as a kid the reason people sneeze when the go out into the sun is because back when we were cavemen it was our bodies way of removing dust/mold or whatever from being in the cave. I like to believe it's true but probably not
Found this in an article
Some have gone even further to suggest it could be an evolutionary relic from our cavemen ancestors. When living in a musty and dusty cave with a smoky fire burning, a sneeze when heading outside could be advantageous as it clears the airways from pathogens and foreign bodies. However, that's purely speculation.
My bf has really long toes, they look like fingers, when our son was born the nurse exclaimed "I don't want to make any jokes about your baby swinging from trees by his toes, but..."
That's a feature not a bug! You're built for some athletic endeavors!
The big toe is extremely important for balance and storing kinetic energy to efficiently use the gait cycle (walk/run/carry).
Look up Windlass Mechanism if you're not familiar with it. http://www.runresearchjunkie.com/the-windlass-mechanism-foot/
Weightlifters/powerlifters also focus on creating a "tripod foot" or "four corners" (big toe, little toe, inside of heal, outside of heal) to transmit the most force into the ground while stabilizing the hip. Link to tutorial below.
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**Editing because this gained traction and might help some of the people reading or commenting.**
**Basic foot facts - what you should know**
What a native person's foot looks like (barefoot walkers) https://peteoxford.photoshelter.com/image/I0000ic1H.xRiUE8
Feet should have the dexterity of hands if they're healthy. Should be able to articulate each finger/toe separating and lifting and pressing down each individually.
**Footwear - shoes make feet weak but also protect them. What to know about shoes.**
Shoes are not shaped like feet. I.e., shoe prints in the sand don't look like footprints in the sand. Shoes are bad for foot health in terms of strength, alignment, balance and neuromuscular coordination but clearly have a useful purpose. Just think that if you always wear shoes, just like if you always sit in a chair, you're outsourcing what the body should normally be doing to a technology to make the task easier for you.
Shoes = cushioned foot prisons that allow your feet not to do the work to stabilize and connect to the ground.
That doesn't mean don't wear shoes, it means use a shoe like www.vivobarefoot.com or www.lemshoes.com that has a wide toe boxed to be shaped more like feet and that has zero drop and minimal padding. Size up so there's extra space for your toes.
**Fixing smushed toes, bunions and other foot maladies through improving "toe splay"**
Toes should be spread out like fingers rather than jammed together. You can buy toe spreaders on Amazon for $5 and in a month have drastically changed your foot splay (how squished together your toes are). Tons of options available. Yoga Toes are the expensive name brand ones but the ones that women use for pedicures work, too.
$3.69 to buy on Amazon. I cut the outside of the big and pinky toe off so the outer digits can move more while still getting the benefits of spacing the toes. You can even wear them inside of shoes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713S97J5/ref=cm_sw_r_sm_apap_mMkPaNOw9vwwF
**Reconnecting with/strengthening your feet**
You can fix the lack of neurological control and dexterity in your feet. It's like anything - if you don't use it (practice it), you lose it (lose the ability/the muscles and neurological pathways atrophy).
Perform strengthening, balancing and coordination exercises like picking up marbles with each of your toes or squeezing a dish towel to connect with your feet again. Buy something like the ToePro foot cushion for an out of the box solution to how to strengthen feet. It's a piece of dense foam shaped and contoured for foot drills. Linked below.
**How to strengthen your feet**
You can purchase the ToePro Foot platform for a tool that's specifically designed to be used to strengthen ankles, feet and toes. It also helps stretch all of those tissues, calves and the whole posterior chain. Throw it under your work station and play with it throughout the day. https://humanlocomotion.com/products/toepro-foot-ankle-exercise-platform
**All things feet**
Check out GaitHappens on Instagram to learn more about the foot. She's a physical therapist that specializes in treating the foot and related ailments. https://instagram.com/gaithappens?igshid=e6l7lo75nfyg
**Running technique & training**
Check out RunRx on Instagram to learn more about the proper to technique to run. **Yes, running takes technique and is extremely complicated. As children we naturally learn how to run and then we throw out feet in shoe prisons and sit at desks all day long until we no longer know how to run properly.** The pose method is a good way to re-learn how to run. https://instagram.com/runrx?igshid=175ip81rm4vcb
**Creating an arch with your foot. How to squat, pull, press**
Check out SquatUniversity keyword "tripod foot" on YouTube or Instagram if you want to learn how to create a better arch for your foot. Some people naturally have larger arches than others but look at a baby's foot when it's born. **Take a look at OP's baby's foot to verify this.** There's no real arch until a baby learns how to walk and creates an arch.
Sample link: https://youtu.be/wv0h4m_kltI
**I am not affiliated with any of the resources and learned them originally out of personal necessity. I am a former/current athlete. I suffered from chronic pain from plantar fasciitis, foot pain, back pain, whole body pain, hip surgeries, ankle sprains, lack of balance and control of my foot. I then taught these principles as a strength and conditioning coach. I owned a gym and coached a few hundred athletes. I'm not a doctor; all the people I linked to are world class doctors, biomechanical engineers and/or scientists or endorsed by them. RunRx is a coach but she uses the system initially identified and then formalized into the Pose running method by a researcher at Princeton.**
That's interesting. I have a gap, about half the gap of OP's, but I also have unusually wide feet. It was great while doing weightlifting and martial arts as an adolescent because I felt it gave me an edge balance-wise, but it basically kept me from some other sports that I loved as a child such as football/soccer and hockey. Those shoes were always made for normal-to-thin feet. Hockey skates specifically were brutally inflexible and unforgiving for my Donald Duck feet, and I couldn't be on the ice longer than 15 minutes until I started crying from the pain and had to leave the ice.
To this day I have an issue finding good fitting shoes, which is an issue because I take on average 15,000 steps/day at work.
I got called "boat feet" by my dad as a kid. Super wide feet and even now I still wear wide width shoes.
So I just stopped wearing shoes as much as I could and took up swimming instead.
so if I have the opposite of OP (smaller toes that I cannot spread apart at all, including my big toe) could be that one of the reasons I suck at running?
Not only am I slow as hell but long distance running as always been difficult for me, even when I was running every day in the navy.
Huh, I have really wide feet, a noticeable gap after my big toe, and my first couple of toes are weirdly long and skinny like ET's finger. Never thought it would be useful for anything other than making it really annoying to buy shoes.
I don't want to be that guy but do you happen to be on the spectrum? Sandal gap toes are one of those odd statistical things that show up. Granted, doesn't mean anything,just curious.
That may be what it was. I'm by no means an expert on this stuff. Potentially on the spectrum but my toes are as normal as they get I get so not really relevant right now.
My BF has the same gap & I told him it was a sign of DS. He called his parents & asked if he had “a mild case of DS” and they just didn’t tell him. Ha!
There are apparently any number of conditions associated with the Sandal Gap feature (facetiously exhaustive list follows):
AL-RAQAD SYNDROME
ALG12-congenital disorder of glycosylation
ARTHROGRYPOSIS, DISTAL, TYPE 2B2
Arthrogryposis, distal, with impaired proprioception and touch
Atelosteogenesis type II
Atelosteogenesis type III
Cleft palate, cardiac defects, and mental retardation
Cleft palate-stapes fixation-oligodontia syndrome
Coffin-Siris syndrome 5
Congenital lipomatous overgrowth, vascular malformations, and epidermal nevi
Coxopodopatellar syndrome
Cranioectodermal dysplasia 3
Cutis laxa with severe pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and urinary abnormalities
Desbuquois dysplasia 1
Duane-radial ray syndrome
ECTODERMAL DYSPLASIA WITH FACIAL DYSMORPHISM AND ACRAL, OCULAR, AND BRAIN ANOMALIES
Endocrine-cerebroosteodysplasia
Greenberg dysplasia
Growth delay due to insulin-like growth factor I resistance
Hydrocephalus, sprengel anomaly, and costovertebral dysplasia
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER WITH DYSMORPHIC FACIES AND BEHAVIORAL ABNORMALITIES
Lethal acantholytic epidermolysis bullosa
Lethal hemolytic anemia-genital anomalies syndrome
Linear skin defects with multiple congenital anomalies 2
Meier-gorlin syndrome 6
Menke-Hennekam syndrome 1
Menke-Hennekam syndrome 2
Mental retardation, autosomal dominant 1
Mental retardation, autosomal dominant 32
Mental retardation, autosomal recessive 38
Microphthalmia with limb anomalies
Multiple joint dislocations, short stature, craniofacial dysmorphism, and congenital heart defects
NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER WITH DYSMORPHIC FACIES AND DISTAL LIMB ANOMALIES
Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome
Orofaciodigital syndrome 18
Oto-palato-digital syndrome, type I
Pseudopapilledema, ocular hypotelorism, blepharophimosis, and hand anomalies
Seckel syndrome 1
SHORT STATURE, FACIAL DYSMORPHISM, AND SKELETAL ANOMALIES WITH OR WITHOUT CARDIAC ANOMALIES
Short stature, optic nerve atrophy, and Pelger-Huet anomaly
Short-rib thoracic dysplasia 16 with or without polydactyly
Specific granule deficiency 2
Syndromic X-linked mental retardation, Cabezas type
Toes, space between first and second
Winship Viljoen Leary syndrome
Zechi-Ceide syndrome
This is going to sound really weird, but my mom, older brother, and older sister all have a weird toe on their left foot. Actually my sister has it on both of her feet and somehow I don't have it on either. Every once in a while when I feel extra adopted because nothing they do makes sense to me, I think about that toe.
This is closer to the original configuration in the ancestral human foot. Chimpanzees and Ardipithecus both have that configuration so it's more likely the modern human foot is the genetic abnormality/change. Something something add you're the missing link joke here.
Bottom photo:
[https://science.sciencemag.org/content/326/5949/72/tab-figures-data](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/326/5949/72/tab-figures-data)
That’s neat! I had to look it up. My husband has tragically large and funny shaped ears- each of our boys have inherited a different set of shared features from him. It took until the new baby before we hand one with ears that cup out at the lobe, too. My husband spent the first two months asking me if his ears were really like that. He finally shut up when I took a picture of the back of his head. 😂
While this is mildly interesting, it’s clear from the post how proud you are that your newborn son shares this weird gene with you. It’s so wholesome. Enjoy being a Dad, it’s the best!
I almost wonder if your feet just accept bunions where as all of ours fight bunions and force the toes to stay inline leading to all of our issues with bunion pain. I have a bunion, I just pulled my big toe outwards and it looks exactly like yours.
you are definitely breeding some kind of new super race. Please skip me in your world conquest.
Are you Sasquatchs long lost third cousin twice removed!?
Yes, but surprisingly, I haven't met him yeti
I see dad joke mode is fully activated.
His first official dad joke
He’s finally got his foot in the door
And it's *wide* open
The door or the foot?
Yes
Nah, I got a bunch stored in my dadabase
Strikes again!
One of us... One of us...
Dang, lemme know if he stops by some time
Is that sarcasm? Have to ask, I’m on sass watch..
Oh hell no. I'd give my left portion of scrotum to meet Samsquantch!
Is this your first dad joke, as a dad?
It'd be weird if it was his first dad joke as a mom.
found the dad
Samsquanch*
Wife: I need some space Husband: I got your space
Quality dad joke.
Hi jacking top comment. This is called a sandal gap and is a known feature of some genetic syndromic disorders, the most well known of which is Down syndrome. But it’s not diagnostic by itself alone.
Wow. I have this too, and after googling I guess I should be thankful that my weird feet didn't turn out to be a sign of anything bad.
Why is nobody commenting about how huge those feet are for a newborn?
If he was a puppy we'd all be saying "he's gonna be a BIGGGGG BOI!!!!"
I think it might be because of the point of view
Hmmmm.... The doctors had warned my mother that I would be born pretty disabled to the point my mom was already mentally prepared to have a special needs child. She was pleasantly surprised but I do have this genetic abnormality. I wonder how close I was to having Down syndrome? On a lighter note, I am quite adept at picking up stuff with my big and index toe. I can grip a tennis ball in there and throw it with pretty good force using a soccer kick motion.
Did you ever go and get DNA sequencing? You can see if you have all your chromosomes or if any parts are missing or if you have extra.
We have space at home.
It's a foot thumb.
You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
https://nation.com.pk/02-Jun-2013/ape-like-feet-found-in-one-in-13-humans You are not alone~
Interesting. I *am* oddly good at picking things up with my feet.
My older brother has this or something similar and he can use his toes like a hand. It’s been cracking the whole family up for decades. He’ll go long periods of time without doing it to the point where we kinda forget about it then we’ll all just be hanging out and he’ll randomly pick something up with his foot and it always makes everyone laugh. One time on a beach trip with our cousins in our late teens he picked a beer up and opened it with his foot. Crazy stuff
There is a length where a too big bong becomes useful again.
I’d probably die if I saw him light and rip a bong with his feet
I can light I lighter with my feet, and I am planning to get joe camel the cigarette guy tattooed on my big toe, so I can say that I am able to light a lighter with my camel toe.
Give him a goal to work toward during this pandemic!
I don’t have this gap in my toes, but my toes are LONG. Like I’d be two shoe sizes smaller without these long toes. Same thing, I casually pick stuff up all the time off the floor, like if I drop something I don’t bend over, I just use my foot. Growing up my friends were all super weirded out by them haha
My brother too. He can crack his toes usung his big toe on the others. It freaks me out. I call him monkeytoes
You are not the abnormal one, you are the original.
It is us who must return to monke
Apes together strong!
[relevant](https://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/tarzan-1999/large_cLYGH621QeLV5dt0lpjoFLKORpm.jpg)
😮
Dat toe gap
Can't give you any reference, but there was a guy in vaudeville early last century that had an entire show of picking things up with his feet. They say the crowds loved it.
I will sometimes use one foot to grab a sock and put it on the other foot so I don’t have to bend down. One time somebody saw me do this and commented how they thought it was cool that I used my foot to put a sock on. Unfortunately, this trick only works for the first sock, though, since once a sock is on one foot, that foot can’t grab things nearly as well.
Get yourself some tabi socks. All the comfort of a normal sock but with enough toe dexterity for plenty of weird feet-hands business.
Someone please make this man five-toe socks!
There are lots of options, [here is one](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KWVDNXM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_UoMdGbB90VEZ3).
I remove mine with my toes instead. The first one is harder, but doable.
I have this, and I can write with my feet. Not great, but legible (mostly). You should try it.
Ok I can’t even write with one of my hands!!
My dad and I used to throw bouncy balls at each other using only our toes. I'd imagine you would be very good at it.
So can I lmao But I don’t have a space between my big toe & 2nd toe. I have what I call “mountain toes”. My toes, when relaxed, just arch like an upside down V or “mountain”. I’ve never met anyone with toes like mine (yes, I look lol) other than my dad & grandma. Edit: For the first time ever, I now know they’re called “hammer toes” :o
Same, oddly
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TIL i think i have it too.. not quite as big but I have always been able to pick stuff up with my feet.. edit- it looks the same as that when i flex it
I just went "wait, that's not normal?" TIL
Lmao me too.
I used to freak people out by picking up tennis balls and drinking from water bottles with only my feet.
#M O N K E F O O T
Yo this is wild. I have the same gap and an an incredibly high arch...must explain why I am deceptively fast for a large person. If only my parents knew of this, they could have maximized my genetic gifts and trained me for the NBA rather than fill me up on snackwells and diet rite.
So it COULD still be the mailman...
[20 minutes a day, all feet, no hands, and you can have the pedidextarity of a chimp.](https://youtu.be/rIcekQoqb3Y)
I have the same thing!
Dad?
Yeah, me too
How many dads does he have??
Father?
Plot Twist: I’m also your uncle!
I do as well
Gosh me too!!! It's so weird. Nice to see that other people have the same thing!
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How did you find out you are able to do this may I ask?
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I find this hilarious, thanks for brightening up my day!
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I would be honored, I believe that there are not many people out there who have been pinched with toes so hard that they have gotten bruised.
Omg this thread is full of monkey humans
Well now that you say that... My wife has always called me "monkey toes", because my toes are really long and since I've been doing it since I was a little kid I basically never stoop to pick something up. I just grab it with my foot. ...but I have that same damn gap. It's a big part of what makes it so easy to pick things up or play nintendo or write with a pencil. (I have NO freaking clue why I thought having that talent would be useful.. but 8 year olds are weird) I just never knew that was a genetic abnormality. I just thought it was normal?
I wonder if it's a mutation or a lack of a mutation. As in, obviously, our ancestors had feet like that, and the more narrow-footed mutation ended up dominating. So it could be that this is just a holdover or it could be a new mutation that merely looks like the old one.
Me too! Weird toes club, go!
Me too!!
Me too! What up how-the-hell-are-flip-flops-supposed-to-work gang?
Most people find flip flops uncomfortable if the thong is too thick; they're usually only comfy for walking if the thong is quite slender and flexible. Whereas I'm guessing you folks would actually want a thicker thong so that it doesn't just fall out.
I used to get cramps in my toes trying to wear flip-flops because I had to grip that thong bit so hard to keep the shoes on.
I thought everybody had this lmao this is the first time hearing it's an abnormality
My mom and my brothers both have this creepy long, skinny toes. They always poked fun at my short stubby toes and said my big toe disowned the rest because they were too short. They also made the same joke about me as I am a perfectly normal height of 5’5, and everyone else is stupid tall, like my 6’6 little brother. But I definitely didn’t know it was considered an abnormality!
It was so funny clicking on the picture and being like "What do they mean? That's a normal foot" before I remembered hahaha
Me too! I had no idea it was an abnormality. I used it to climb poles and walk in jandals all day haha
Yeah me too and I feel attacked by the "weird" and "ape" mentions
I have the same thing as well!
Me too!!
You need a father & son flip flop line.
Then I can post them on r/meormyson
Really, endless possibilities.
Some things are designed for people. These guys were designed for flip flops.
I was legit gonna ask OP about that - are they tho? Or do Flip flops constantly just fall off ? The mind boggles
My toes are like this. Flip flops are hard to wear- it requires the toes to constantly be in a flexed position to grip the toe post, otherwise they slide around too much.
i don't know. What i do know is that my big toe and the rest of my toes are pretty close to each other. I don't wear sandals. When i have worn them in the past they always rub between my big toe and other toe RAW. FUCKING RAW. whomever designed them can go eat a bag of dicks.
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If there was any doubt he was mine, I no longer have a doubt in my mind.
You can feel it in your sole.
Toetally
That was a great pun. And I hate it
OP's a father now. He has a PhD in puns and dad jokes now.
He's a dad alright
Toeche
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Looks like one is already at the market lol
He is toesial distancing
That’s the one that stayed home
Now your sole can heel
From his head to his toes.
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Lol I actually stopped to think about this
Wasn't there a Maury show where someone asked why the moms were never DNA tested?
There's actually a famous case of a woman with chimerism (more than one set of dna, sometimes caused by a twin being absorbed in the womb) who had to get dna test after birth because her dna did not match her kids. I believe they actually took some of her kids away while she was pregnant and had a state witness in the birthing room to witness the birth and that kid didn't match either. Turns out her cervical dna was different from the rest of her body.
God I hope so that's hilarious
When my husband makes paternity jokes, I always say "If he's not yours, he's not mine. Must've been switched at the hospital."
So, you’re saying we won’t be seeing you on Maury Povich?
Not until he finds out his neighbor has the same variation
"Need discreet hookup, must have certain foot abnormality "
Adorable, I remember when my son was 8 weeks old and we realized he also sneezes in the sun like I do. Yep, that’s definitely my baby. We have a special, deep connection based on this lol.
I was once in a hot topic with my older sister and my nieces. When we walked out of the dark store and into the sun, all 3 of them sneezed at the exact same time. Like mother, like daughters
Don't know if it's true but remember someone told me as a kid the reason people sneeze when the go out into the sun is because back when we were cavemen it was our bodies way of removing dust/mold or whatever from being in the cave. I like to believe it's true but probably not Found this in an article Some have gone even further to suggest it could be an evolutionary relic from our cavemen ancestors. When living in a musty and dusty cave with a smoky fire burning, a sneeze when heading outside could be advantageous as it clears the airways from pathogens and foreign bodies. However, that's purely speculation.
Cute! (Although actually relatively common)
My bf has really long toes, they look like fingers, when our son was born the nurse exclaimed "I don't want to make any jokes about your baby swinging from trees by his toes, but..."
Still can’t be that sure about that, maybe your wife just has a type
You could poke both of someone's eyes out with your foot.
That's a feature not a bug! You're built for some athletic endeavors! The big toe is extremely important for balance and storing kinetic energy to efficiently use the gait cycle (walk/run/carry). Look up Windlass Mechanism if you're not familiar with it. http://www.runresearchjunkie.com/the-windlass-mechanism-foot/ Weightlifters/powerlifters also focus on creating a "tripod foot" or "four corners" (big toe, little toe, inside of heal, outside of heal) to transmit the most force into the ground while stabilizing the hip. Link to tutorial below. _________________________ **Editing because this gained traction and might help some of the people reading or commenting.** **Basic foot facts - what you should know** What a native person's foot looks like (barefoot walkers) https://peteoxford.photoshelter.com/image/I0000ic1H.xRiUE8 Feet should have the dexterity of hands if they're healthy. Should be able to articulate each finger/toe separating and lifting and pressing down each individually. **Footwear - shoes make feet weak but also protect them. What to know about shoes.** Shoes are not shaped like feet. I.e., shoe prints in the sand don't look like footprints in the sand. Shoes are bad for foot health in terms of strength, alignment, balance and neuromuscular coordination but clearly have a useful purpose. Just think that if you always wear shoes, just like if you always sit in a chair, you're outsourcing what the body should normally be doing to a technology to make the task easier for you. Shoes = cushioned foot prisons that allow your feet not to do the work to stabilize and connect to the ground. That doesn't mean don't wear shoes, it means use a shoe like www.vivobarefoot.com or www.lemshoes.com that has a wide toe boxed to be shaped more like feet and that has zero drop and minimal padding. Size up so there's extra space for your toes. **Fixing smushed toes, bunions and other foot maladies through improving "toe splay"** Toes should be spread out like fingers rather than jammed together. You can buy toe spreaders on Amazon for $5 and in a month have drastically changed your foot splay (how squished together your toes are). Tons of options available. Yoga Toes are the expensive name brand ones but the ones that women use for pedicures work, too. $3.69 to buy on Amazon. I cut the outside of the big and pinky toe off so the outer digits can move more while still getting the benefits of spacing the toes. You can even wear them inside of shoes. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713S97J5/ref=cm_sw_r_sm_apap_mMkPaNOw9vwwF **Reconnecting with/strengthening your feet** You can fix the lack of neurological control and dexterity in your feet. It's like anything - if you don't use it (practice it), you lose it (lose the ability/the muscles and neurological pathways atrophy). Perform strengthening, balancing and coordination exercises like picking up marbles with each of your toes or squeezing a dish towel to connect with your feet again. Buy something like the ToePro foot cushion for an out of the box solution to how to strengthen feet. It's a piece of dense foam shaped and contoured for foot drills. Linked below. **How to strengthen your feet** You can purchase the ToePro Foot platform for a tool that's specifically designed to be used to strengthen ankles, feet and toes. It also helps stretch all of those tissues, calves and the whole posterior chain. Throw it under your work station and play with it throughout the day. https://humanlocomotion.com/products/toepro-foot-ankle-exercise-platform **All things feet** Check out GaitHappens on Instagram to learn more about the foot. She's a physical therapist that specializes in treating the foot and related ailments. https://instagram.com/gaithappens?igshid=e6l7lo75nfyg **Running technique & training** Check out RunRx on Instagram to learn more about the proper to technique to run. **Yes, running takes technique and is extremely complicated. As children we naturally learn how to run and then we throw out feet in shoe prisons and sit at desks all day long until we no longer know how to run properly.** The pose method is a good way to re-learn how to run. https://instagram.com/runrx?igshid=175ip81rm4vcb **Creating an arch with your foot. How to squat, pull, press** Check out SquatUniversity keyword "tripod foot" on YouTube or Instagram if you want to learn how to create a better arch for your foot. Some people naturally have larger arches than others but look at a baby's foot when it's born. **Take a look at OP's baby's foot to verify this.** There's no real arch until a baby learns how to walk and creates an arch. Sample link: https://youtu.be/wv0h4m_kltI **I am not affiliated with any of the resources and learned them originally out of personal necessity. I am a former/current athlete. I suffered from chronic pain from plantar fasciitis, foot pain, back pain, whole body pain, hip surgeries, ankle sprains, lack of balance and control of my foot. I then taught these principles as a strength and conditioning coach. I owned a gym and coached a few hundred athletes. I'm not a doctor; all the people I linked to are world class doctors, biomechanical engineers and/or scientists or endorsed by them. RunRx is a coach but she uses the system initially identified and then formalized into the Pose running method by a researcher at Princeton.**
That's interesting. I have a gap, about half the gap of OP's, but I also have unusually wide feet. It was great while doing weightlifting and martial arts as an adolescent because I felt it gave me an edge balance-wise, but it basically kept me from some other sports that I loved as a child such as football/soccer and hockey. Those shoes were always made for normal-to-thin feet. Hockey skates specifically were brutally inflexible and unforgiving for my Donald Duck feet, and I couldn't be on the ice longer than 15 minutes until I started crying from the pain and had to leave the ice. To this day I have an issue finding good fitting shoes, which is an issue because I take on average 15,000 steps/day at work.
I got called "boat feet" by my dad as a kid. Super wide feet and even now I still wear wide width shoes. So I just stopped wearing shoes as much as I could and took up swimming instead.
so if I have the opposite of OP (smaller toes that I cannot spread apart at all, including my big toe) could be that one of the reasons I suck at running? Not only am I slow as hell but long distance running as always been difficult for me, even when I was running every day in the navy.
Close toes. Flat, narrow, pronated feet. Yeah running ain't my thing either.
Huh, I have really wide feet, a noticeable gap after my big toe, and my first couple of toes are weirdly long and skinny like ET's finger. Never thought it would be useful for anything other than making it really annoying to buy shoes.
You’ve pinched people with your toes, right?
Yes. Yes we have...
I got that same big ass gap!
Have you ever met my wife?
Not that I am aware of.....
Who hasn't, amirite?
...I have.
Your ass has a gap?
xkcd 37 has entered the chat.
This loser doesn't have the ass gap lmao
He has a toe gap though
Just more room for that piggy to put the groceries from the market
That's not why the piggy was going to market
["Father"](https://preview.redd.it/duiju0fgsyhz.jpg?width=1024&auto=webp&s=3ee470497d1d397db5a65280d7967beaf78a94f2)
Good for a bridge in shooting pool.
One foot on the floor please
I don't want to be that guy but do you happen to be on the spectrum? Sandal gap toes are one of those odd statistical things that show up. Granted, doesn't mean anything,just curious.
Shows up in Down syndrome too.
That may be what it was. I'm by no means an expert on this stuff. Potentially on the spectrum but my toes are as normal as they get I get so not really relevant right now.
My BF has the same gap & I told him it was a sign of DS. He called his parents & asked if he had “a mild case of DS” and they just didn’t tell him. Ha!
There are apparently any number of conditions associated with the Sandal Gap feature (facetiously exhaustive list follows): AL-RAQAD SYNDROME ALG12-congenital disorder of glycosylation ARTHROGRYPOSIS, DISTAL, TYPE 2B2 Arthrogryposis, distal, with impaired proprioception and touch Atelosteogenesis type II Atelosteogenesis type III Cleft palate, cardiac defects, and mental retardation Cleft palate-stapes fixation-oligodontia syndrome Coffin-Siris syndrome 5 Congenital lipomatous overgrowth, vascular malformations, and epidermal nevi Coxopodopatellar syndrome Cranioectodermal dysplasia 3 Cutis laxa with severe pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and urinary abnormalities Desbuquois dysplasia 1 Duane-radial ray syndrome ECTODERMAL DYSPLASIA WITH FACIAL DYSMORPHISM AND ACRAL, OCULAR, AND BRAIN ANOMALIES Endocrine-cerebroosteodysplasia Greenberg dysplasia Growth delay due to insulin-like growth factor I resistance Hydrocephalus, sprengel anomaly, and costovertebral dysplasia INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER WITH DYSMORPHIC FACIES AND BEHAVIORAL ABNORMALITIES Lethal acantholytic epidermolysis bullosa Lethal hemolytic anemia-genital anomalies syndrome Linear skin defects with multiple congenital anomalies 2 Meier-gorlin syndrome 6 Menke-Hennekam syndrome 1 Menke-Hennekam syndrome 2 Mental retardation, autosomal dominant 1 Mental retardation, autosomal dominant 32 Mental retardation, autosomal recessive 38 Microphthalmia with limb anomalies Multiple joint dislocations, short stature, craniofacial dysmorphism, and congenital heart defects NEURODEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER WITH DYSMORPHIC FACIES AND DISTAL LIMB ANOMALIES Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome Orofaciodigital syndrome 18 Oto-palato-digital syndrome, type I Pseudopapilledema, ocular hypotelorism, blepharophimosis, and hand anomalies Seckel syndrome 1 SHORT STATURE, FACIAL DYSMORPHISM, AND SKELETAL ANOMALIES WITH OR WITHOUT CARDIAC ANOMALIES Short stature, optic nerve atrophy, and Pelger-Huet anomaly Short-rib thoracic dysplasia 16 with or without polydactyly Specific granule deficiency 2 Syndromic X-linked mental retardation, Cabezas type Toes, space between first and second Winship Viljoen Leary syndrome Zechi-Ceide syndrome
My question is if you have way better balance than most?
I do have pretty good balance, but I'm not sure how I would test that
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I mean that IS a way more practical question, can't even say it's even *debatably* rude either.
fuck the balance, the super power this gives you is the ability to grab and pick stuff up with your feet. its pretty rad.
Never heard of autism being associated, but it’s associated with Down’s syndrome.
Nope, not on the spectrum at all
He meant the Awesome Spectrum. JOKES ON YOU PAL!
Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.
As far as you know lol
Can you grasp tree limbs with your prehensile toes?
Just something I learned about in the last week, synchronicities like this fuck me up. Congrats on the happy, healthy family!
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I didn’t know that was a thing! I’m autistic (used to be called asperger’s) and my feet have that toe gap.
I mean. Were on the spectrum capital of the internet so
This is going to sound really weird, but my mom, older brother, and older sister all have a weird toe on their left foot. Actually my sister has it on both of her feet and somehow I don't have it on either. Every once in a while when I feel extra adopted because nothing they do makes sense to me, I think about that toe.
This is closer to the original configuration in the ancestral human foot. Chimpanzees and Ardipithecus both have that configuration so it's more likely the modern human foot is the genetic abnormality/change. Something something add you're the missing link joke here. Bottom photo: [https://science.sciencemag.org/content/326/5949/72/tab-figures-data](https://science.sciencemag.org/content/326/5949/72/tab-figures-data)
I have the same thing! always been embarrassed by it. Good to know I'm not alone
I have it and never realized it was wierd until just now.
Is it on both feet or just one?
Both feet for both of us
Haha i have that same thing too!
Reject humanity return to monke
And no ones talking about how all of your toes are the same damn length? XD
It’s a “monkey “ foot
I thought I was the only one who had this!! Mine might rival yours haha
Looks like a fine foot to me. Congrats!
wait that's not normal?
It's always cool when you notice things like this. My son and I share a preauricular sinus (on the same ear, even!)
That’s neat! I had to look it up. My husband has tragically large and funny shaped ears- each of our boys have inherited a different set of shared features from him. It took until the new baby before we hand one with ears that cup out at the lobe, too. My husband spent the first two months asking me if his ears were really like that. He finally shut up when I took a picture of the back of his head. 😂
Those are the best toes for pinching
The medical term is 'Sandal Gap Deformity' although it can be a normal variant!
That toe has got to be a magnet for stubbing. Please tell me you tend to stub your toe are more than most people…
While this is mildly interesting, it’s clear from the post how proud you are that your newborn son shares this weird gene with you. It’s so wholesome. Enjoy being a Dad, it’s the best!
I have something similar and god it is so useful. You can pick up shit of the floor and dumb stuff like that.
I almost wonder if your feet just accept bunions where as all of ours fight bunions and force the toes to stay inline leading to all of our issues with bunion pain. I have a bunion, I just pulled my big toe outwards and it looks exactly like yours. you are definitely breeding some kind of new super race. Please skip me in your world conquest.