I never thought much about shoes when Honeybun was a baby. We lived in sunny South Florida and socks were more than enough to keep her little tootsies warm. It wasn’t until she started pulling up to stand that I started worrying about shoes and even then she only wore them at school to keep from slipping on the tile floors, not usually at home on the carpet.
Sugarplum got her first pair of shoes when she was 6 weeks old and we returned to Dublin. The busy little baby kept kicking her socks off and her poor feet were always so cold. Her first shoes were cute little corduroy maryjanes that she wore until I couldn’t squeeze her little feet into them anymore (and that was a long time, she always had tiny little feet!)
Both girls stuck with leather sippers until they were walking well and ready to run around outside. Even once we move to “proper” shoes, I still prefer flexible soles over extremely stiff ones so the baby can practice balance and develop all the muscles in their foot. For the girls, it was never a problem to find flexible rubber soled shoes.
Doodle’s first shoes were a pair of hard soled loafers (I got them for $2!!!) and since he started crawling and pulling up he’s been rocking a cute pair of leather airplane slippers. But now that he’s walking and especially since the girls like to spend so much time outside playing, he needs more protective shoes. There is always a myriad of cute (and even inexpensive) little girls’ shoes to choose from but I am struggling to find the same for little boys!
The main problem I’m running into (and it was a major problem for Sugarplum too) is that the shoes that fit him have fabric, slippery bottoms and the shoes that have non-slick bottoms have hard, inflexible soles. I’ve searched and searched for flexible rubber bottomed shoes and finally found two pairs (one at Target, one at H&M) but paid more than I would have liked (they grow so fast, I don’t like to spend too much on shoes!)
The right shoes are really important for proper foot development, balance and coordination. Here are some tips for choosing the right shoes for a new walker:
- Let baby run around barefoot whenever possible to let him/her learn to grip their toes and develop the muscles for balance
- Skip the high tops and shoes with “extra support”
- Choose shoes with uppers that are soft and flexible, made from breathable fabrics
- Choose soles that are rubber (or grippy), thin and bendy
- Make sure shoes are not too tight or too small as baby feet are very maliable and the bones are growing rapidly
