At what age did you stop taking your dc for specialist children's shoe fitting and did this give you more choice?

[hmc]

I ask because I still take dd age 10 and she seems to be amongst the oldest there. She is a size 3-4 and wide fitting (g/h) and detests her new school shoes - she was offered 5 pairs to try on and only one fitted so Hobson's choice. I am wondering if it would be deeply appalling if in future I just took her to the adults section in a shoe shop and trust her assessment of whether or not they fit

Watching with interest as school shoe shopping cost me nearly £100 for two dc today . Could have cried at the till, but last year I bought startrite shoes (expensive but cheaper than todays) and the made dd's feet bleed as the leather was too hard so I had to buy two pairs (in the same bloody size as her feet hadnt grown)

I can top that little ducks - mine cost £170 (2 pairs of school shoes - 1 pair apiece for dd and ds, and 2 trainers for their pe bags). Start rite shoes and geox trainers - more expensive than the other makes but the only ones deemed to fit appropriately - and they HATE their shoes (sigh)

We have stopped this time. DS is 10 and now in a size 8 shoe. Therefore at the little independent shoe shop we usually go to they would be Fro the men's section and extortionate when you factor in DDs school shoes too.

He is not remotely bothered. In fact he is pretty pleased he got to shop around.

DD was about 9/10. Yes it gives you more freedom, but in my DDs case she wanted shoes from Next/New Look. They were labelled as school shoes, black/flat etc. but such shite quality, lasted 6 weeks max? Having said that each term she seemed to grow a size, or need boots etc.

So I relented.

I have never had ds fitted for shoes I feel the toes and across the width myself, I have lots more choice and I've never had a problem with shoes rubbing/pinching/falling off etc ds is 3yo and dd is 10 months I have no intention of getting her measured either.

DD 12 has had her first pair of non-fitted school shoes this year, she is a 7E, clarkes had nothing in stock in her size in the childrens range and refused to fit an adult shoe on a child.
DD was thrilled as she ended up with the all black converse she wanted.

I am quite confident in my own shoe fitting abilities anyway, it's not rocket science.

littleducks, I feel your pain, 3 DC in new shoes has cost me £126, not including DD and DS's Pumps/Trainers for PE and wellies for DS2.

I'm keeping mine in plimsolls for as long as possible then (to be fair they only wear them to 'walk to the hall' for 90% of the school year and thn do PE bare foot)

I'be just started getting my 3yo measured and then buying elsewhere with my own judgement. I'm intending on getting foot measures for home.

Never done it. Can't afford it.

OK - am starting to feel emboldened to break away from the strictures of childrens shoe fitting! Have been looking at some hush puppy designs on Schuh that look half decent....

I stopped about a year ago when ds grew out of kids sizes! He takes an 8 at age 9 and there's not a lot of choice for him. I still go to an independent shoe shop but they carry adults and kids sizes and I trust them to not rip me off.

Startrite website sells foot guages and has a fitting guide

Gauges? Guages? Gagues?