I often get questions about footwear for babies and children. “What shoes are the best for my early walker? What shoes are the best for my kindergartner?”
Let’s start with babies. The bottom line is that babies need as much barefoot time as possible. So actually the answer is no shoes for babies as much as possible, because babies get a ton of neurologic input from the bottoms of their feet. I’s really important for them to get plenty of barefoot time. The only time I recommend putting shoes on babies is if you’re heading outside and you need to keep their feet safe from injury or warm in the winter time.
As babies start to walk, they will need shoes for going outside. The ones that I liked best for my kids when they were starting to walk was a very simple moccasin with a thin leather sole, like Robeez. That’s the best first shoe for babies – as little as possible.
I get a lot of questions about, “My baby looks flat-footed. My toddler looks flat-footed.” Babies and toddlers actually have a fat pad where the arch is in an adult foot. This is why babies and toddlers look flat-footed for a while, but that’s how they’re designed. Kids don’t develop an arch in their foot until around 2-3 years of age, so they don’t need shoes with arch support until then. When we move on from baby shoes, I continue to recommend as little of a sole as possible until they’re three. Look for a thin, flexible sole. You should be able to easily bend the shoe in half.
As kids get older than 3, then you gradually want to change to shoes with some arch support. I like to see school-aged kids in supportive tennis shoes with some arch support.
The most common question I get in the summer of course is about sandals. I do not like flip-flops at all for adults or children, except for brief periods of time (just at the pool or beach!). Flip-flops make your foot work hard to just keep the shoe on, and we don’t want kids’ feet to work harder than they need to. Every time you take a step with a flip flop, your foot has to grab to keep that shoe on. Look for sandals with a strap behind the heel, because then the foot doesn’t have to work to keep the shoe on. The more supportive the sandal, the better. I like the sandals with toes covered for little ones because they saved my kids from stubbing their toes many times. Again, barefoot time is good for all kids!
Foot pain in children can be very common. Bring them in for a chiropractic evaluation if they’re having foot pain because it’s often something easy for us to help with. If you see flat-footedness in kids past age three, do bring them in for a checkup as well because we can often change the progression of that if we catch it early.
