THINKING SMALL: Making strides in children’s footwear | Lower Extremity Review Magazine

This article is an excellent snapshot of where we are today with children's footwear and shoe fitting. The frustrating part is that after 100 years, we still don't have a definitive guide for parents and caregivers of the right way to size and buy children's shoes. Instead of being far ahead of a century's worth of hard, damaging shoes, it seems we haven't really made enough of a leap in shoe design, but are now starting to understand the implications. Based on the studies highlighted in this article, we are doing much more damage to children's feet by not understanding the best environment for growing feet, damage that in many cases may be permanent.

It's something most parents don't give much thought to. Many (including me at times)We handle purchasing a pair of shoes as casually as buying a sweater or pair of pants for their child. 'We're driven by color, style, function. Or, rather, our children drive us to focus on these things and we forget the bigger picture, our responsibility as parents. But sweaters don't cause hammertoes, and pants won't lead to medical problems down the road.

I think the entire parenting community needs to be made aware of how important proper foot development is. I understand this on some level, but not once has it ever been mentioned in my children's well-visits with the pediatrician. That's where it needs to start. It is up to the medical community to educate us so that the footwear industry will respond with adequately supporting shoes and do away with fashion trends that are permanently damaging children's feet.

What do you think?


THINKING SMALL: Making strides in children’s footwear | Lower Extremity Review Magazine

Winter Boot Blues

Socrates said, "When our feet hurt, we hurt all over." This from a man who probably never wore a supportive pair of shoes in his lifetime. However, he was onto something. Fast forward 2,4000 years and it does hold true that if our feet hurt, we are not in a good place. Never did this become more evident to me than this past weekend, when my seven-year-old son had major pain in his feet from tight ski boots.

The weekend began on a good note. We headed up to the mountains of Vermont to ski with the whole family. Two trips down the hill, and the good note was lost in the wailing moans of a pained kid. You see, we had checked to see that the ski boots he was going to wear for the season ng fit back in November, when we pulled them out of the deep recesses of the cellar. I forgot a very important truth about kids' feet though - they continue to grow - sometimes seemingly overnight!

So, there we were on the mountain, and he began to complain that his boots hurt. We tried loosening buckles, having him wiggle his foot a bit, and wondering if maybe a sock was scrunched up the wrong way, causing irritation. By the second trip down the hill, after he fell three times and was in tears, I realized it was more than a creased sock.

We got into the lodge, and I went straight to the rental area. He was sized for a new pair of boots, and they were a full size bigger than the ones he had been wearing. The look of ecstacy on his face when his feet slipped into those bigger, roomier boots, melted my heart. Poor kid. He knew they hurt, he was absolutely miserable, and it was an easy fix to get him back into a good place.

The rest of the day, he was a powerhouse on the slopes -and he didn't complain once about his feet. I learned a valuable lesson -- feet can and do grow in the middle of a season -- and I have to be sure to regularly check boots and skates, or cleats and sneakers, to be sure that they still fit. There's nothing worse than painful feet, and no child should have to live with it.

Have you ever had this happen to your child? What did you do? What did they say to let you know their feet hurt?