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One minute a day and a mirror. The signs worth looking for, why they can go unnoticed and which ones cannot wait.
Checking your feet every day is one of the simplest and most useful ways to catch a problem early if you have diabetes. It takes a minute and needs nothing but light and, if you cannot see the sole, a mirror on the floor or someone’s help.
The underlying reason is uncomfortable but simple: diabetes can reduce sensation in the foot, and what you cannot feel does not warn you. A blister from new shoes, a small stone inside your sock or a nick while cutting a nail can go hours or days without hurting. Looking replaces feeling.
What to look for
You do not need to know how to diagnose: it is enough to notice that something has changed since yesterday.
- Wounds, cuts, blisters or rubbed areas, however small.
- Red areas, especially if the mark is still there a while after taking your shoe off.
- Changes of colour: pallor, bruised or dark areas.
- Areas that feel warm compared with the other foot.
- New swelling in one foot and not the other.
- Cracks in the heel or between the toes, and moisture or an unpleasant smell between them.
- Hard skin and corns, which show where there is more pressure than there should be.
- Nails that are thickened, changed in colour or digging in.
- A feeling of tingling, burning, or of walking on cotton wool.
If you find cracks in your heel, what to do when cracks appear in the heel explains how to protect them and why, with diabetes, it is worth seeking advice early, even if they do not hurt.
And if what you notice between your toes is itching or peeling skin, itchy skin between the toes explains what it may be and what to do while you seek advice.
How to check them in a minute
- In good light, at the end of the day: that is when marks from footwear show.
- Sole, heel, between the toes and the top. If you cannot see the sole, use a mirror on the floor.
- Dry carefully between the toes, and moisturise the rest of the foot while avoiding that area.
- Also feel inside the shoe with your hand: a loose seam or a small stone is found there, not on the foot.
What not to do at home
- Do not cut hard skin or corns with a blade, and do not use corn removers: on a foot with reduced sensation it is easy to do more damage than you feel.
- Do not try to remove an ingrowing nail by poking down the side.
- Do not use very hot water, hot water bottles or electric blankets: if sensation is altered you can burn yourself without realising. Check the temperature with your elbow or a thermometer.
- Do not walk barefoot, not at home and not on the beach.
When to seek help the same day
If a wound that will not heal, pus, a spreading red area, new heat or swelling, an unpleasant smell or a change of colour appears —even if it does not hurt—, or pain that stops you standing, that does not wait for the next check-up. On a foot with diabetes or circulatory problems, time matters: what is dealt with early is usually easier to resolve.
And if none of that has happened, a regular check at the clinic is still worthwhile: much of the work consists of finding the problem before it gives any sign.
Diabetic foot explains what that check-up at the clinic involves and what is looked at.
Sources
- IWGDF Guidelines on the prevention and management of diabetic foot disease (opens in a new tab) · International Working Group on the Diabetic Foot, 2023
- Diabetic foot problems: prevention and management (NG19) (opens in a new tab) · National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), 2015
- Looking after your feet with diabetes (opens in a new tab) · Diabetes UK
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