Shoes or No Shoes?

When teaching a baby to walk (in the house) -- is it better to let them walk around barefoot? or is it easier for them to learn wearing shoes?

Shoes or No Shoes?
It's much easier to learn to walk barefoot, and kids should be allowed to walk barefoot as much as possible -at least indoors, but outdoors doesn't hurt either in many places like yard, park etc. A few quotes, much more in the source:





Udaya Bhaskara Rao and Benjamin Joseph. "The Influence of Footwear on the Prevalence of Flat Foot," The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 74B(4), 1992


"In Europe and America flat foot is a common reason for attendance at a children's orthopaedic clinic, but in India children are seldom brought for treatment for flat foot. The few children who do attend with this complaint are from affluent urban families and they all wear shoes. In our clinic we have never seen a child from the farming community or from the family of a manual labourer who complained of flat foot.


...


The high concentration of flat foot among six-year-old children who wore shoes as compared with those who did not, implies that the critical age for development of the arch is before six years.


...


Our cross-sectional study suggests that shoe-wearing in early childhood is detrimental to the development of a normal or a high medial longitudinal arch. The susceptibility for flat foot among children who wear shoes is most evident if there is associated ligament laxity. We suggest that children should be encouraged to play unshod and that slippers and sandals are less harmful than closed-toe shoes."





From Take Off Your Shoes and Walk by Simon J. Wikler D.S.C. (Doctor of Surgical Chiropody):


TABLE 10 - children's feet were:


Mothers who objected to their children going barefoot


VP P F G E


9 44 50 6 0





Mothers who had no objection to their children going barefoot


VP P F G E


0 2 21 16 13


Key:


VP - Very poor feet


P - Poor feet


F - Fair feet


G - Good feet


E - Excellent feet





"children who had the opportunity of going barefoot a great deal, had less deformed toes, greater flexor strength, more ability to spread the toes. They also had denser muscles on the bottom of the feet; greater agility than those who had never gone barefoot, with a wider range of hip circumduction and more flexibility of the gluteal and hamstring muscles, and therefore, more ability to touch the toes when the knees were held stiff."
Reply:if they are walking then the shoes are fine. IF they are still learning, most pediatricains dont suggest shoes until the baby can walk un assisted. My pediatricain, said it doenst hurt to put soft soled shoes on when they are learning. like grabbing furniture and walking around with assistance.
Reply:No shoes!


I have 7 children and have never put shoes on them until about 8 weeks after they start confidently walking. I strongly believe that they should be allowed to literally find their feet before introducing the constraints of shoes, it allows their little bones and muscles to develop properly before squashing their feet into often ill fitting footwear.


When you do get your little ones first shoes, make sure you go to a reputable shop and have their feet measured to get the right fit, their bones are still so soft, wrong fitted shoes can do untold damage.
Reply:My daughter is 7 months now, when she was 6 months I started to put shoes on her. She walks better with the shoes, she has more balance. If I don't put shoes on her she stands on her tippy toes, when the shoes are on she has more balance. My daughter is almost walking and she is only 7 months. It might be different for others, but I say YES!! To Shoes in my case.
Reply:Look how big he is getting!! Oh man that's so cool.





They say no shoes and barefoot as much as possible. They need to be able to feel the ground and learn footing. Shoes are only necessary once they know how to wallk. And shoes actually hinder them from learning how to walk cause they can't feel the ground as well to get footing.
Reply:Barefoot is much better as it allows the foot to form naturally. A Stride Rite salesman told my mother that my son *needed* to wear shoes because his foot was already wide %26amp; it would become double-wide if he didn't.


So then I buy my baby double wide shoes, what's the big deal, right?
Reply:I think it's best with no shoes around the house. In shoes they can get unsure without being able to feel the floor underneathe their feet. They'll naturally learn how to walk in shoes later on but like learning to just walk, it'll be clumsy until they get used to it.
Reply:by a shoe called robees you can get them at stride rite or other stores using different names-the are like a moccasin so it is like being barefoot. it has a leather bottom and is light weight than you have the best of both worlds
Reply:I guess either way can work. My mom put shoes on me and my brother and we started walking early. I didn't put shoes on my daughter and she was walking at 10 months.But we have hard wood floors so she used a walker too. Personally I say no shoes.
Reply:I'd say barefoot unless of course your outdoors. When we go out I put Robeez on her feet. They are comfortable and not uncomfortably rigid like some baby shoes are. (Not that she's walking yet, she's only 6 months old)
Reply:teach your baby to walk barefooted. it helps when there's nothing on their feet when they learn. just make sure that the floor is clean so that your baby's feet won't get dirty.
Reply:I was told no shoes. My daughter hardly ever wore shoes in the house. I only put them on her when going out. She learned to walk very well.
Reply:I think it depends. My daughter likes to be very energetic, I mean bouncing of the walls. She actually got a a lil sore on each big toe from moving around so much. I would say shoes for me LOL
Reply:Barefoot is best. I only started using shoes when my daughter could actually walk, when we went out somewhere.
Reply:barefoot....babies use their toes to grip. And the make shoes that are soft and great for baby. Robeez is one brand bobux is another...check them out.
Reply:barefoot
Reply:Shoes do offer support and may help them be more stable but it isn't something you have to do!
Reply:my babies learned barefoot. the shoes were only put on when they were outside or if we were going somewhere.
Reply:Barefoot! And let them go barefoot in public when they are bigger!
Reply:My kids never wore shoes until they learned to walk and then only outside.
Reply:i think it's best to be barefoot.
Reply:oh wow Landon is getting so big from that pic! anyways no shoes!!
Reply:My son learned to walk with no shoes



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