14mo scared of shoes

[smallgingerone]

I bought my DD a pair of the soft leather shoes for Christmas, hoping to make a transisition from tights (socks come off straight away) to shoes as she is getting towards walking but not quite there.

However, we had the worst reaction I have ever seen. She screamed and screamed until they were taken off and we get the same reaction every time we have tried them on. I have tried putting them on and distracting her, playing with her favourite toys, encouraging her to walk etc. We have put them on her dolly, her teddys, my dad put them on top of his slippers and everytime she will scream and take them off her or her toys.

Does anyone have any experience of this or any hints of how we can help her over come this. I would like to get this sorted before we need to put her in proper shoes for walking outside.

Thanks

Have you tried those stretchy moccasin type things? DS has some from boots, suedy sole, stretchy upper into a sock. They're harder to pull off than a sock and provide extra warmth and the feeling of structure under the foot.

*Boots

tbh I would leave it if she hates it that much. By the time she is walking outside and so really needs shoes, it may not be a problem anymore. If not, well they all have their little issues - ds hates hats but its cold out, he soon forgets once he's exploring outside.

You could put thick socks under her tights for extra warmth.

Ah, yes! DD had huge meltdowns about her first pair of wellies! She was fine with her first shoes, but a few months later when I bought her some wellies, she screamed and cried and threw herself on the floor. At that point she'd never had any tantrums, so she just seemed really scared and it looked really alarming.

What I did (and she loves wellies now!): I played with them, made a huge effort to be really silly. Pretended I was putting them on my feet, then talked about how they didn't fit because they were her shoes. I kissed them and cuddled them in a hugely exaggerated way (seriously), then offered her the wellies to give them a kiss or stroke them. This made her laugh, and eventually she agreed to have them put on her feet for a little while. I put them in the hallway where we would walk past them several times a day, so she would get used to them being around. Also put them on teddies, dolls etc.

Otherwise - put the telly on and when she's all goggly-eyed and hypnotised put them on her?

Ds1 was like this but turns out Clarks had measured his feet wrong and sold me a size too small, so even though I could get them on his feet, they where too tight and hurt him.

I sold those one's, but he wouldn't put shoes on again. He started walking as the weather was getting better so just bought some of those slippers with the leather bottoms for outside and tried again with shoes (from somewhere other than Clarks) after a couple of months.

Thanks for all the help. I think i will keep trying with playing with them, leaving them around for her to pick up and explore herself. YouCanDoIt - I tried putting them on when she was eating (she will concentrate on nothing else when food is around) but still she realised and screamed!

I thought we had another wee while before proper shoes are needed but the way she has started walking today I don't think we will have too much longer.