How to choose the right children’s shoes

Choos­ing chil­dren’s shoes is not an easy task for many par­ents. Togeth­er with the Span­ish brand PABLOSKY, we have pre­pared tips that will help you make the right choice, as well as take care of the health and devel­op­ment of your child.

To begin with, there are so-called ide­al shoe char­ac­ter­is­tics that par­ents should be aware of: nat­ur­al and breath­able mate­ri­als, a spe­cial­ly designed last that takes into account the spe­cial anato­my of a child’s foot, a light and flex­i­ble sole with reli­able grip and good cush­ion­ing, no inter­nal seams and a remov­able anatom­i­cal insole.

In addi­tion, you should take into account the age of the child, and the asso­ci­at­ed fea­tures of the shoes. It is impor­tant to remem­ber that the first 6 years are crit­i­cal for ten­don and mus­cu­loskele­tal devel­op­ment. How­ev­er, on aver­age, chil­dren’s feet grow until they are 16 years old, con­tin­u­ing to change shape and not ful­ly devel­oped until that point. There­fore, you should buy the right shoes for your child from lead­ing man­u­fac­tur­ers who spe­cial­ize specif­i­cal­ly in the chil­dren’s seg­ment and thor­ough­ly under­stand the phys­i­o­log­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics of each age group. Con­sid­er what you need to pay atten­tion to.

Age 0+

A lit­tle baby should not wear shoes until he has start­ed to crawl. In the first months of life, it is rec­om­mend­ed to wear light socks and booties, which should pro­tect the legs from the cold. Dur­ing the crawl­ing and stand­ing phase, before walk­ing, light and flex­i­ble shoes should be used to allow full free­dom of move­ment for the grow­ing feet. Choose mod­els with extra toe pro­tec­tion and a min­i­mal thick­ness of the sole so that the child can feel what he is step­ping on. In the PABLOSKY Ste­peasy line of shoes for the lit­tle ones, all mod­els give the nec­es­sary degree of free­dom and give the feel­ing of bare feet.

Age 1–3 years

As soon as the baby begins to take the first firm steps, a low heel and a closed high back are added to the above char­ac­ter­is­tics to secure the leg and pro­tect the ankle joint.

Age 3–8 years

For kinder­garten or ele­men­tary school, where the child spends a sig­nif­i­cant part of the time, choose leather mod­els with an inter­nal mate­r­i­al that effec­tive­ly absorbs mois­ture so that the legs always remain dry. Pay atten­tion to the fact that the shoes have a sim­ple but reli­able fix­a­tion method, have a small heel up to 1.5 cen­time­ters, and have a flex­i­ble sole.

Age 8–18

For mid­dle and high school stu­dents, the appear­ance of shoes and fol­low­ing fash­ion trends are of great impor­tance. At the same time, shoes should be com­fort­able, prac­ti­cal, and also com­ply with the rules of the edu­ca­tion­al insti­tu­tion. It is rec­om­mend­ed to choose mod­els made of gen­uine leather or high qual­i­ty tex­tiles, with an antibac­te­r­i­al insole, an absorbent lin­ing and a non-slip flex­i­ble sole.

From the gen­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions for mak­ing a suc­cess­ful pur­chase, we want to note the fol­low­ing. Baby’s feet grow quick­ly and in fits and starts, so always check your shoe size before buy­ing a new pair. Mea­sure your child’s feet at the end of the day as dur­ing the day, the legs can become 3 mm longer and 10 mm wider. Place your foot on the insole — this allows you to see if there is enough room for a com­fort­able posi­tion of the foot when walk­ing. If pos­si­ble, chil­dren should be present when buy­ing shoes.