5 Essential Tips for Baby Shoes Shopping

Kitty Qiu, the author, is founder of Kio Trend Kids’ Shoes and expert on children footwear.

Having a new baby in your family must be exciting, especially when you see them grow, start to crawl and learn to stand up and walk. The first step of a child means so much – not only physical development, but also a great leap forward to observe the world around them. However, choosing the first pair of baby shoes is a daunting task for many new parents. Many questions confuse them: do little babies need shoes at all? Which is better, hard or soft sole? How often do they outgrow shoes they’re wearing now? What are reliable and affordable brands …?

If you happen to be a new parent of your first little cutie pie, here are some shoe purchase tips that might make you less frustrated when shopping baby shoes:

• Barefoot Could Be Dangerous. Experts suggest that, when babies learn to crawl or stand on their own, they do not have to wear shoes at all because it’s the better way to learn how to use their feet to support themselves or move around. While barefoot works well on carpets or soft and smooth floor, babies should not go barefoot when walking on hard surfaces (such as concrete)or outside, especially on a gritty sidewalk, let alone some public parks where broken glass shards can be found.

• Anti-Slip Is Important. Another element of a good pair of baby shoes is that they should be anti-skid which provides more friction when babies crawl on the floor and prevent them from slipping and falling when they learn to walk.

• Hard Sole vs. Soft Sole. Next problem is hard sol against soft sole. There’re debates on this issue and our suggestion is that soft and bendable sole can actually help your kid walk better. That’s why our infant shoes are all made of supple genuine leather and highly flexible soles.

• Space for Toes to Grow. According to a recent survey, over 90% of kids are wearing ill-fitted footwear and similar percentage of parents didn’t notice that. You should also make sure that your baby can move his toes freely with shoes on. The premium space between toes and shoes is the width of a little finger and that allows the toes to wiggle and grow healthily. However, too much space between toes and shoes makes the footwear ill-fitted and could even cause babies trip and fall.

• Lace vs. Velcro. We don’t recommend laced shoes for young babies because if the laces get loose and parents don’t notice it, they could trip and fall. The better choice is Velcro. Some babies learn to wear shoes by themselves and Velcro does not pose a great challenge for them. In general, Velcro is safer and you don’t have to watch from time to time if your kid is walking in loose shoes.

These baby shoes shopping tips are originally published on Kio Trend Baby Shoes blog. More baby foot health tips can also be obtained at AOAS.