Ensuring that your child wears properly fitting shoes is important for their foot health and of course overall development. Children’s feet grow rapidly and improperly fitted shoes can lead to a lot of discomfort for tissues and even hinder proper growth. Unfortunately you might make common mistakes when buying shoes like assuming your child’s shoe size without measuring or choosing shoes based completely on style instead of the fit. In this guide you can learn everything about how to measure your kids shoes perfectly well.
Understanding foot growth
Your child’s feet grow at an astonishing rate especially during the early years. In the first year of life your child’s feet can grow up to three sizes between the age of 1 and three. Foot growth can average 1/2 size every three to four months. As your child reaches the school age the rate of growth slows somewhat with feet growing about 1/2 size every six to eight months. You need to know that rapid growth means that shoes that fit perfectly today might be too tight within a few months making regular foot measurements really important.
Importance of regular foot measurements
Before you buy kids sock shoes it’s important for you to understand the importance of foot measurement. Considering the rapid growth of your children’s feet, regular measurements are important to ensure that their shoes fit properly. Wearing shoes which are completely small can cause discomfort, blisters and even long-term foot issues like bunions. On the flip side, shoes which are too large can lead to instability, tripping or difficulty walking.
Essential tools and preparation
To perfectly measure your child’s feet at home you need to have some basic materials like a piece of plain paper large enough to fit your child’s foot or even pen or pencil for tracing the outline of your child’s foot. You need a ruler to measure the length and width of the foot. The simple tools are all you need to get a perfect measurement that will help you choose the right shoe size. It’s really important for you to choose a suitable measuring space, ideally a flat hard surface like a hardwood floor or a tiled area. You can avoid carpeted surfaces as they can distort the measurements. For the most accurate measurements your child should be standing during the process. Ensuring that your child is comfortable and relaxed as a wiggly or a tense child can lead to inaccurate measurements.
Step by step guide
You can start by placing the piece of paper on the floor flush against the wall. The wall and work like a guide to ensure that your child’s heel is perfectly positioned correctly. You can ask your child to stand on the paper with their heels touching the wall. Just ensure that their feet are flat and they are standing naturally, not leaning forward or backward. The heel should be firmly against the wall to ensure an accurate measurement of the foot length. You can consider using a pen or a pencil carefully tracing around your child’s foot keeping the pen or pencil upright and close to the foot to avoid adding extra space. Once you have traced the foot you can use a ruler to measure the distance from the yield to the longest toe. This measurement is the foot length and will be the primary factor in determining the size. Lastly you need to measure the width of the foot at its widest point typically across the ball of the foot. Foot width is important because children with wider or narrower feet might need to choose which are especially designed for their foot shape.
Understanding the shoe sizes
Once you have all the measurements you need to compare them to a shoe size chart to determine the correct size. It’s generally recommended to choose a shoe that is around half inch longer than your child’s longest toe to allow for growth and movement. If your child falls outside the standard range you can consider looking for shoes that offer narrow or wide options.
So above all you need to know that measuring your child’s speed accurately and choosing the right shoes are important. By understanding the growth patterns of your children’s feet using the right tools to measure and knowing how to check for good feet you can make informed decisions when buying shoes.