Caring for your child’s feet

Making sure that you monitor your baby’s feet is vital in establishing the ‘building blocks’ for your child’s walking development.

Once your baby can take a few steps confidently and may be walking outdoors on rough surfaces, protect their feet with early first shoes made of flexible, lightweight and natural materials, such as soft leather, with flexible and non-slip soles.

Have the shoes checked every six to eight weeks as children's feet grow, on average, two full sizes a year until they are four or five years old. There needs to be at least 18mm growing room between the end of your child's longest toe and the end of his/her shoe. Children's feet grow faster in the spring and summer and sometimes hardly at all in the winter. Shoes that don’t fit properly can prevent natural growth, cause discomfort and adversely affect a child’s health.

One of the questions that we get asked on a daily basis from customers, is, ”How do I measure my child’s feet?”. I often hear of the problems associated with parents taking their children in to a shoe shop to try hundreds of different shoes and it amazes me how many people have not heard of this very simple technique.

The answer is simple… get a blank piece of paper, stand your child up so their feet are flat to the floor and mark with a pen from the back of their heel to their big toe. You then measure with a ruler the distance between the points, then add (1/2cm) to account for movement and hey presto you have a hassle free way of finding out your child’s shoe size.

With this in mind we’ve produced a printable measuring chart to ensure the perfect fit for your little one’s growing feet.