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This post has been authored by our friends at Bobux, who provide fantastic shoes that are both good looking, and designed to allow a toddlers feet to develop.
Walking is such a massive and exciting milestone for your child! The next logical step is to go out and get them a pair of shoes right?
Wrong. Keeping your child barefoot as much as possible is the best thing you can do.
A child’s foot at first walker stage has no bones. It’s all cartilage and padding tissues as the bones, ligaments and tendons develop through use of the foot.
Growing feet need plenty of freedom for muscles to strengthen and bones to form in a natural position. Allowing your child to walk barefoot will encourage natural development, and is important in the first years of life.
If you need more convincing, here are 5 reasons why you might want to let your toddler go barefoot more often.
People who have habitually worn poorly fitting shoes will have feet that naturally taper inwards at the tip, with the toes pinched in. Here’s some news; that’s not how they’re meant to look. They’ve been moulded that way through years of wearing shoes.
Now have a look at your baby’s foot, and notice how it’s narrow at the heel and gets wider towards the toes? We tend to shove our children’s feet into stiff, unsupportive shoes before the bones in their feet have fully formed.
A baby’s foot is made up of cartilage, with bones developing over several years. Research has shown that our feet conform to the shapes of our shoes, rather than developing naturally.
Most shoes have a toe box that squashes our toes and prevents them spreading to their natural width. Many shoes often come with a heel raise that elevates the back of the foot and can shorten the muscles and tendons in the back of the leg if worn for a long period of time.
Shoes can distort the way kids learn how to walk. Shouldn’t kids naturally know how to walk properly? The thing is, none of us do.
Cushioned soles mean we tend to slam our heels into the ground rather than tread gently. Most shoes feature a toe spring that helps us lift our heel off the ground.
With all this additional help, shoes may alter the development of muscles that are crucial for walking and running. By regularly wearing shoes, children may have reduced strength in their toes, ligaments or tendons.
There’s a bit more science to this reasoning. Our feet have over 200,000 nerve endings which transmits information to our brains about the ground we walk on. This activity is called proprioception, the body’s awareness of itself in its surroundings.
Allowing these nerve endings to feel the ground helps children develop better balance and coordination, and educate their brain on what muscles need to fire to perform certain tasks.
A recent study in South Africa found that people had healthier feet before shoes were invented. The research showed that populations who often go barefoot have healthier feet than shoe-clad communities.
It makes sense. Shoes provide a warm, damp environment that fosters trapped fungi and bacteria. Tight shoes on growing children can cause ingrown toenails that can break the skin and cause infections. It’s not a pleasant thought, but an easily avoidable one!
Let’s be honest, there are times – and places – where you really can’t get away with your child running around barefoot. Many children grow up in a world of concrete and asphalt. Playgrounds often have splinter-causing wood chips on the ground.
Going barefoot is one of the best things you can do for your kids, but for those times when shoes are a necessity, try to find shoes that foster natural development. Bobux shoes for toddlers feature flexible soles and soft designs to nurture your child’s foot development as they grow.
Kids shoe company Bobux was founded in 1991 in an Auckland garage. Since then, it has become a leading shoe brand for toddlers and young children around the world thanks to its emphasis on foot health, natural development and great design. Today, Bobux sells over half a million shoes each year.
Unfortunately for some people, shoes can be a pain. Finding properly fitting shoes that look good, and aren't uncomfortable, can be a difficult task.
The picture below (Sketch A) highlights what tends to gradually happen to our feet (especially around the toes) when we wear shoes that are fitted poorly. Sketch B is a foot that has never worn shoes. Most of us will probably lie somewhere in between these two images, as it's difficult to walk around town for the rest of our lives without wearing shoes.
So how are we to know whether our shoes are too tight for our feet? A great sign is when you take your shoes off and say aaaaagh! It's likely that your shoes are too tight if this is happening, and when you take them off there is a simple release of pressure, which feels good, hence the aaaaagh.
To ensure you're not succumbing to the aaaaagh sign, following some simple steps will help:
Buy properly fitting shoes - this sounds simple, but many shoes aren't manufactured to the shape of a human foot. Purchasing shoes that have a rounded toebox are less likely to squash your toes into the shape in Sketch A.
Buy shoes that have fastening - if you wear shoes without fastening, the shoes must be tight to be able to stay on your foot. A strap, laces or buckle will allow you to have a little extra room in your shoe without it flying across the street.
Try on shoes at the end of the day - throughout the day our feet swell due to mild amounts of fluid pooling because as we're upright. Therefore, your feet will be mildly bigger at the end of the day than at the beginning. Trying on shoes at the end of the day will ensure you get the right fit.
Our feet get bigger as we age - if you're a size 7 in your 20s, it is unlikely you'll be a size 7 in your 70s. As we age, our feet sag like other parts of the body and will increase in length and width. Some women find after pregnancy that their feet get bigger, and don't return to their previous size. So it's helpful to keep this in mind, rather than rigidly sticking to the same shoe size you've always bought.
Recent research from the University of Melbourne has shown that a new pair of runners is just as effective as specialised footwear.
Osteoarthritis commonly affects people on the inside (medial) portion of their knee. Researchers have developed specialised shoes that 'unload' the medial side of the knee, by having a stiffer sole on the outside (lateral) of the sole, which helps to reduce load on the medial side of the knee.
This randomised trial by Hinman et al. (2016) compared two groups. The first group received the specialised shoe (Asics GEL-Melbourne) in combination with an insole that is also designed to unload the medial side of the knee. The second group received a pair of new neutral running shoes (Ascis GEL-Odyssey). The researchers found no difference between the two groups for pain and function, with both groups significantly improving. Furthermore, the researchers found the group that wore the specialised shoes were more likely to experience minor adverse effects such as transient foot and ankle pain.
Therefore, wearing specialised shoes and insoles to unload the knee, may not provide any extra benefit, and patients should try wearing a new pair of supportive runners before purchasing specialised shoes and insoles.
Reference
Hinman RS, Wrigley TV, Metcalf BR, Campbell PK, Paterson KL, Hunter DJ, et al. Unloading Shoes for Self-Management of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Randomized Trial. Ann Intern Med. [Epub ahead of print 12 July 2016] doi:10.7326/M16-0453
A large amount of research has been conducted to understand out how to fit running shoes. Most of the research that has been conducted has concluded that patient comfort is one of the most important variables.
Below is a great video that summarises the history surrounding this research, and provides practical tips on how to select a running shoe for you. To summarise:
choose a shoe that is most comfortable to you - do not base your choice solely on what a store person suggests;
alternate the shoes you regularly wear to reduce your risk of injury;
injury is multifactorial and appropriate runners are one component of a comprehensive treatment program.
