September puts children's bare feet in more shared wet spaces than any other month. Swim lessons restart, gym class moves indoors, and cleats come off in crowded change rooms. Two infections thrive in exactly those conditions: athlete's foot and plantar warts. Both are common in school-aged kids, both are picked up from damp communal floors, and both are much easier to prevent than to clear.

Below is what each one looks like on a child's foot, why change rooms are the usual source, and the small habits that keep them out of your house. It pairs with our full back-to-school foot care guide for North York families, which covers shoe fit, activity load and nail care for the season.

Why change rooms and pool decks are the usual culprits

The fungus behind athlete's foot and the virus behind plantar warts both survive on warm, damp surfaces long after the person who left them there has gone home. Shower floors, pool decks and the tiled walk between lockers and showers are the classic hand-off points, whether at school or at a community centre pool.

Kids are more exposed than adults for a simple reason. They spend more time barefoot in these places, and softened, waterlogged skin plus the small scrapes of an active September give both organisms an easy way in. Neither infection says anything about hygiene at home; a child who showers daily can still pick up a wart from one barefoot walk across a pool deck.

Spotting athlete's foot early

Check between the toes first, especially beside the little toe. Early athlete's foot shows up as peeling, flaking or soggy white skin, often itchy, sometimes with a faint sour smell. It can also appear as fine dry scaling along the sole that gets dismissed as ordinary dry skin.

Eczema and plain sweat irritation can mimic it, and the treatments differ, so the distinction matters. One useful clue: fungal peeling is usually worse on one foot, while eczema tends to appear on both.

Left alone, the fungus can spread into a toenail, where clearing it becomes a much longer project. Our post on how toenail fungus develops explains that progression, and this overview of fungal nail treatment shows what's involved once a nail is affected. Catching it at the skin stage avoids all of that.

Spotting a plantar wart

A plantar wart grows into the sole rather than out of it. It usually looks like a small, flat patch of thickened skin with tiny black pinpoints at the centre, and it hurts more when squeezed from the sides than when pressed straight down. Warts also interrupt the fine skin lines of the sole; calluses do not.

Parents most often mistake warts for corns or calluses, and the treatment for each is different. Our guide to telling warts, corns and calluses apart walks through the differences, and a chiropodist can usually identify one on sight.

Habits that actually prevent both

None of this means keeping kids away from pools or team sports. A few routines do most of the work:

• Sandals or water shoes in shared wet areas. The single highest-value habit. Keep a cheap pair permanently in the swim or gym bag so it cannot be forgotten.

• Dry between the toes. Fungus needs moisture. A ten-second towel pass between each toe after swimming or showering removes what it needs to grow.

• Fresh socks after sport. Send a spare pair on gym and practice days; a damp sock worn through the afternoon is a fungus incubator.

• Alternate shoes when possible. Runners need a full day to dry out. Two rotating pairs stay drier than one worn daily.

• No shared towels, no borrowed shoes. Both infections travel on them.

• Cover cuts and scrapes before swim class. Broken skin is the entry point, so a waterproof bandage matters more than it seems.

These fold neatly into the routines in our nine-point back-to-school foot checklist if you want the whole pre-September review in one place.

When to have it looked at

Book a professional assessment if peeling or itching lasts beyond two weeks of careful drying and clean socks, if the skin cracks or weeps, if a toenail starts to thicken or change colour, or if a wart is painful, spreading or multiplying. Children with diabetes or immune conditions should skip the wait-and-see stage entirely.

A chiropodist can confirm what the lesion is and treat it in clinic. See what's involved in a chiropody foot assessment, or read about our medical foot care service for ongoing skin and nail management.

Frequently Asked Questions

My child's toes are peeling but nothing itches. Should I still suspect athlete's foot?

Yes. Itch is common but not universal, especially in the dry, scaling form that runs along the sole and toe edges. Peeling that persists past two weeks of thorough drying deserves a look, itchy or not.

Can one child's plantar wart end up on a sibling's foot at home?

It can. The virus sheds onto bathroom floors and shared towels. Keep the affected child in slippers or sandals at home, give towels and bath mats a hot wash, and cover the wart during swim lessons until it resolves.

Is it fine to try a drugstore wart product on a child before seeing anyone?

Often, but with care. Over-the-counter salicylic acid can work on small, recent warts, though children's skin is more easily irritated, and misidentifying a corn or callus as a wart means treating the wrong thing. If there is any doubt about what the lesion is, or it sits on a weight-bearing spot, have it identified first.

Do these infections clear up on their own once swim season ends?

Sometimes, slowly. Warts in children can resolve without treatment, but that can take months to years, during which they spread and stay contagious. Athlete's foot rarely leaves while shoes stay damp and it has an untreated foothold. Early treatment is quicker in both cases.

Not sure what's on your child's foot? The chiropodists at Donwood Foot Clinic in North York can identify and treat both conditions, usually in a single visit. Book an appointment online.