Shoes

The market for toddler shoes is crazy. When in actuality, the best shoes for kids learning to walk or just recently walking are no shoes. Just bare feet when at home, or even outside in grassy areas, allows for better balance and a faster ability to learn how to make quick adjustments when just starting to walk. Now kids eventually will need shoes when walking on sidewalks and the like, so you want to look for shoes with strong soles that are just a bit flexible. If you try to bend the shoe, the sole should give a little, but the edge of the toe part should not be able to touch the heel part. As far as ankle support, young kiddos’ ankles always look like they are caving in and won’t look “normal” until they have been walking for a long time and build up good muscle and tendons in those areas. So don’t worry too much about using high-tops for better ankle support, we want those ankles to work and develop, not get lazy and rely on shoe architecture to stay in the right position. When your little one is older and playing sports and going to school, that is when ankle support is helpful for maintaining good foot/ankle architecture when they stretch those ankles to the extremes with tag and basketball.