8 foot care rules every diabetic in India should follow
Reviewed by Dr. Dattatreya C V N MVascular SurgeonIn short
Diabetes damages both the nerves and the blood supply of the feet, so wounds are neither felt nor healed properly. The rules that prevent amputation are simple: inspect the feet daily, never walk barefoot even at home, wash and dry between the toes, moisturise the skin but not between toes, cut nails straight across, wear proper footwear checked for stones before wearing, never self treat corns and calluses, and show any wound that has not healed in two weeks to a doctor immediately.
The tragedy of diabetic foot disease is that it is slow. Nobody loses a foot overnight. They lose it over three months, starting with a wound the size of a coin that did not hurt, because the same diabetes that caused it had numbed the nerves that would have complained.
Every rule below exists because we have seen the consequence of skipping it. None of them costs money. All of them together prevent the majority of what we end up operating on.
- 01
1.Look at your feet every day
Once a day, after bathing, look at the soles, the heels and between the toes. Use a mirror on the floor or ask someone at home. You are looking for cuts, colour change, swelling or broken skin. In a numb foot, your eyes have to do the job your nerves have stopped doing.
- 02
2.Never walk barefoot, including at home
The habit is deep in Indian households and it is the single most dangerous one for a diabetic. A stone, a hot floor in summer, a dropped pin: the injury is not felt, so it is discovered days later, infected. Soft slippers inside the house, always, including to the bathroom at night.
- 03
3.Wash daily, and dry between the toes
Fungal infection between wet toes is how many foot ulcers begin. Wash with plain soap and lukewarm water, test the temperature with your elbow because your feet cannot be trusted to feel it, and towel dry between every pair of toes.
- 04
4.Moisturise the skin, but not between the toes
Diabetic skin cracks, and cracks admit infection. Any plain moisturiser on the tops and soles keeps the skin supple. Between the toes stays dry, because trapped moisture there feeds fungus.
- 05
5.Cut nails straight across, never dig the corners
Ingrown toenails in diabetics become infected toes with remarkable speed. Cut straight across after a bath when the nail is soft, file the edges, and leave the corners alone. Poor eyesight or thick nails mean this job goes to someone else in the family, or to us.
- 06
6.Shake out the footwear before wearing it
A pebble inside a shoe on a numb foot grinds an ulcer during an ordinary day. Check inside footwear every single time. Prefer closed, cushioned shoes with socks over hard chappals, and break new footwear in for an hour a day rather than a full day out.
- 07
7.Do not perform bathroom surgery on corns
Blades, corn caps and acids from the pharmacy have started more diabetic foot infections than we can count. A corn or callus in a diabetic is a pressure warning that needs footwear correction and trained hands, not kitchen instruments.
- 08
8.Two weeks is the deadline for any wound
Any wound below the ankle that has not clearly healed in two weeks needs a doctor, and immediately if there is spreading redness, discharge, smell, black tissue or fever. Early debridement and the right antibiotic heal ulcers. The same ulcer after three months of home dressing is how amputations happen.
Related questions
Asked alongside this topic
Three reasons compound. High sugar impairs the immune cells that fight infection, damaged nerves stop pain from enforcing rest, and narrowed arteries deliver less blood to build new tissue. Treatment addresses all three, which is why wound dressing alone so often fails.
When a foot wound is not healing within two weeks, when there is calf pain on walking that settles with rest, when a foot is turning pale, blue or black, or when pulses in the foot cannot be felt. These point to the blood supply, which is the vascular surgeon’s territory.
This article is general information, written for readers in and around Hyderabad, and it does not replace a consultation. It was medically reviewed by Dr. Dattatreya C V N M and last updated on 18 July 2026. For advice about your own case, book a consultation on +91 99988 86103.
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