First Shoes

[sazzerbear]

I have a 14 month old ds and up to now he has not worn shoes as has only just started walking (the health visitor advised not to bother till he was confidently walking). Got feet measured today and tried on some shoes, he was in hysterics (so was mummy!) - the young Assistant in Clarks did not help matters either. His feet are now too big for soft starter shoes, did not buy any "big" shoes today as selection not good enough and we were too traumatised!
In hindsight would have made sense to start him off with soft shoes but too late now so I need to get him used to wearing shoes pdq, any tips? I feel terrible!

My DD was the same. She got her first ever shoes at 13mo, and was very anti to begin with. It only took a week of putting them on for a short spell each day for the tears to disappear. At 16mo she now runs and grabs them for me when we need to go out!

Thanks, that's encouraging to hear!

He doesn't need shoes until he can confidently walk outside. Plenty of children don't have soft shoes first.

Have you thought of trying soft leather shoes, like Shoo Shoos/Robeez/Inchblue etc? My son started walking at 11 months but really hated shoes - anything that was too restrictive was just awful to him. But the soft leather shoes were wonderful - he loved them too! And unlike "pram shoes" which say they're not for walking babies, the soft leather ones are meant for walking little ones too (can even get them up to age 3-4 from some companies!), though not sure how wonderful they'd be for a really wet or muddy day, and obviously the leather won't be as tough as rubber soles. But I just can't praise these shoes enough - keep the socks on too and shoes don't fall off! And because they're soft & flexible, they don't hurt the child's growing foot and they get a very good grip of the ground too!

I recently found this shop on eBay, suppposedly made & sent direct from China - but they look very cute and are inexpensive too. stores.ebay.co.uk/THE-RUJIS_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZQ2d33QQftidZ2QQtZkm I haven't tried them myself, so can't vouch for them, but they have quite good feedback usually.

I've kept my DS in soft leather shoes as well. He has just started walking confidently (though still a little shaky!) and the leather shoes protect his feet but are like a really thin layer so are almost like being bare feet so they must help with balance etc. We have a pair of the pre walker shoes as well from Clarks but have barely used them to be honest. He doesn't mind putting them on so much but I try not to have him in them for long - just long enough for him to get used to having them on. I'm going to hold off as long as I can before getting 'proper' shoes. We did go and have his feet measured again the other day but he was hysterical - he recently had his MMR jab and I think he thought he was going to get jabbed again poor thing!

DS started walking last autumn, we had a pair of Shoo Shoo-type shoes for
him, more like slippers really. He did wear them outside a bit, but then it started getting more wet and wintry. We then swapped to 'proper' shoes and he was fine.

Don't worry about not getting him used to shoes before now, I think it's good for their feet to be bare for as long as poss.

Rachelinscotland - Thanks for the ebay link!
I think he preferred his MMR jab to the Clarks visit LOL

I think perhaps a first time shoe sizing can be traumatic! I must admit that my daughter was 2.5 years old before she had her feet measured properly (I'd just guessed previously or got shoes secondhand). So last month we went to buy some new sandals for a wedding and she absolutely screamed when the lady came with the thing to measure her feet! Seems she didn't know what the lady was going to do - the board looked scary - but eventually we talked to her (husband & I) and she finally calmed down and let the lady do it. But I think it was really the fact that she thought it was going to hurt her or something that made her come unglued!

practice maeasuring at home. we did this she loves it....