17 month DS not walking and has crawled a hole in his new shoes in less than 4 hours. What to do for outdoor footwear.

[mawbroon]

What do those of you with older still crawling babies do for outdoor footwear? My problem is on the patio where ds wore through his new shoes in an afternoon and I can see his trouser knees going the same way too! It is not an option to contain ds any more as he is having a whale of a time out there in the garden.
I bought cruising shoes yesterday and despite saying to the sales assistant that I didn't think the rubbery bit came high enough over the front of the shoe for crawling, she seemed convinced that it was the right shoe for ds. I feel that crawling shoes don't really have a thick enough sole for outside for the times when he does decide to cruise about.
The shop swapped the worn out shoe "as a gesture of goodwill" today but now I am not sure what to put on ds's feet when he is crawling on the patio.
Are steel toecapped shoes available in size 3.5G?

I never bought any kind of shoes for mine until they were walking - so think they probbaly just wore socks or bare feet.
I vaguely remember ds crawling on the slabs outside in shorts & bare feet!

Thanks scotlou. He was just in his socks before, but I was worried about him scraping his wee toes or crawling on sharp little stones. The garden is pretty childproof, but there's always something that they can hurt themselves on. The woman in the shop told me that he shouldn't crawl outside in the shoes so it seems that he can wear them inside, but has to take them off to go outside.

Wellies??

I think I just barred them from the garden as we only have patio, that and dedicated a pair of leather daisy root type shoes to it and let them get trashed (bought them cheap 2nd hand)

yeah, i didn't bother with shoes till he could walk...and even now outside he sometimes wears socks to walk on patio and lawn. he'll be fine.

oh, how about putting him in cheap jeans which take ages to wear out when he is in garden. doesn't matter if they are dirty, wear for a few days, no-one will be seeing him and saves the nicer clothes from getting spoiled.

My friend's little boy still isn't walking and she puts him in some sturdy boots that just get scuffed to hell, along with his trousers.
But with the warmer weather coming maybe the best thing is to go for some cheap shoes that won't break the bank if you have to keep replacing them, like these on sale at Mothercare .

DS only ever wore socks if it was cold out or went barefoot if it was warm enough until he had been walking happily for a month or so. No need for them imo and most of the medical stuff Ive read says not to put them in shoes before they are walking. Even now at 2.9 he still likes walking about barefoot - on gravel, stones, tarmac etc...babies & kids are tougher than we think sometimes

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think I will just go back to having him out there in his socks. I was adamant that he didn't need shoes until he was walking properly, but something about him grubbing about in the garden made me think otherwise - silly me. He will probably have outgrown the ones I have just spent £18 on before he can walk as it seems to be a long way off.

Not sure that he could crawl in wellies alexw but it might be amusing to watch him try. Only kidding.

Good tip re the cheap shoes and jeans though. Thanks everyone

Another good thing for protecting knees of clothes a bit is to cut the arms off outgrown/old/50p from the charity shop jumpers and slide them over his trouser legs, gives an extra layer and protects his trousers a bit.