second-hand shoes, what are your views??

[flymo79]

just wondering as dd's first shoes were EXTORTIONATE and the woman at clarks* (other shoe shops are available!!) reckoned I had to take her back to be measured every 6-8 weeks! surely not! she is now confidently toddling about at 1yr, so needed shoes for nursery, but I still had a little weepy when I saw the price of her tiny size 3's..... gosh. it's more than me and dh pay for a pair, and we don't chuck them out every two months!!
Am tempted by the hand-me-downs and good quality second hands at charity shops and car-booties, anyone else?

i was always told bare is best until they go to nursery and actually "need" shoes

the 6-8 weeks thing is just to check the fit not buy new shoes

Ds is 20 months and started to walk at 11 months. In that time he's had 5 pairs of Clarks shoes (£160), 2 pairs of wellies(£20-Mothercare), 2 pairs of sandles (£25 Mothercare) and 3 pairs of slippers (£15 Asda). That's £220 and he's not even two! Like some pp I would have second hand for wellies etc but probably not his main shoes. That said all of his shoes have been passed on to his cousin who's feet seem absolutely fine.

I took DD regularly to Clarks to get her feet measured. They didn't try to sell me shoes every time, and I went away happy that DD's shoes still fitted correctly. My experience of Clarks seems to differ from most people on here as I was never sold shoes that DD didn't need and the fit was always excellent.

It is very important that small, developing feet are in shoes that fit properly. How you do it is up to you.

I wouldn't as the shoes mould/ stretch to fit the first wearer, so second hand they don't fit the wearer properly.
My mum would never do this either even though we regularly had other hand me downs from cousins or her friends dc.
She was raised by a shoe shop keeper mum, so knew her business.
Buying cheap and replacing more often is much better for their feet.

My mum was the same NewLife Nearly everything we wore was home made or second hand, except for shoes. My mum had awful feet, partly because she wore ill fitting shoes as a child and this was why she felt it was important that we wore proper, supportive shoes that fitted correctly.