Things you should know before buying shoes for your children

  At Pisamonas we help you choose the footwear that best suits your children’s feet Surely you’ve had lots of doubts before buying shoes for your children: Should they always wear the same shoes? How much space should be left between their toes and the toe cap? Is it advisable to keep shoes for younger brothers to reuse? Today at Pisamonas, your go-to children’s shoe shop, we are going to help you resolve all your doubts. Pisamonas helps you with your kids’ footwear. We want to give this issue the importance it deserves because choosing the wrong shoes during childhood can have life-long consequences. It is at this time that the lower limbs develop and so we must take care of our children’s feet by using the best children’s footwear. During childhood the foot grows on average about 8 millimetres every 3 months. There are also growth spurts for each child, which means they change shoe size really fast. For this reason, our first advice is that before buying their shoes you make sure that they are between one and one and a half centimetres larger than their feet. In order to avoid any mistakes, and to avoid having to insert your fingers at the back of their shoes or pressing down on the toes, children’s podiatrists recommend you draw the contour of your child’s foot on a sheet of paper to then compare it to the sizes table of the design you want to buy and which you’ll find on the product’s page under the product description. Children’s shoes should be flexible. You can check this by trying to fold the shoe holding it from the ends. It is not necessary for the toe and heel to touch, but the sole should allow for a certain amount of mobility that will adapt to the child’s steps. The materials used should be of good quality, holding the foot but not too rigid. As for the materials they are made with, at Pisamonas we recommend you always choose natural breathable materials, always making sure the shoe chosen is adequate for the time of year. For the youngest ones who are just starting to walk, we recommend designs fastened with cierre autoadherente or laces and a reinforced counter to offer extra support to the ankles which will provide that extra stability to start walking. According to podiatrists’ current recommendations, the ankle should be free when children start walking, so we recommend our leather Mary Janes or our leather Oxford shoes  which are ideal to help them in the transition between crawling and walking. Regarding the reuse of shoes by younger siblings, we strongly discourage you to do it. At first it might seem like this will save us money, but in the long run it could cost us dearly, especially regarding podiatric health. Each child develops his or her steps according to their weight, the way their foot is supported, the type of activity carried out and many other factors which modify the interior of the shoe according to its characteristics in order to adapt it to his or her steps. If we make our children wear shoes that belonged to someone else, we will be forcing him or her to walk in the same manner as the first owner of the shoes, which could lead to our child being forced to alter the position of his or her feet, which could result in short and medium term damage. As general advice to everyone we must say that comfort should always be placed before fashion, although at Pisamonas you won’t have to choose between them, all our designs are comfortable and with impeccable finishing touches. Something else to take into account when buying shoes is that your children should ideally have at least two pairs of shoes each season. If their feet get used to one shoe shape they can have problems when wearing a different pair. They should always alternate between shoes and trainers while they are still young so that in the future they won’t suffer when wearing moccasins, bluchers or heels due to having worn only trainers during childhood. When choosing footwear for your children, you must bear in mind that not all feet are the same, some are wide, others are narrow, some have toes sticking out, etc. In general, we recommend moccasin-type shoes for narrow feet; but if your daughter has a wider instep, then we recommend Mary Janes; this velvet design  is perfect because it is slightly wider than most other shoes. Boots and trainers usually adapt to all types of feet, so bear this in mind when buying new shoes for your children. Finally, we are going to give you a set of general tips that will help you better chose your children’s footwear:  

• Buy shoes or measure their feet at the end of the day, it’s when the feet are most dilated. If you do it at another time, the shoes could feel uncomfortable by the end of the day.
• Always make sure they try on both shoes, one foot is always longer than the other and this way you’ll avoid any problems.
• If their feet are especially wide look for special shapes. You’ll find many shoe shops that specialise in wider shoes or just look for designs with a special width.
• We should all have at least two different pairs of shoes per season so that our feet “don’t get used to” a single design.
• To prevent problems when walking, children should not reuse other children’s shoes, even if they haven’t been used much.
• Always choose footwear made with natural materials, avoid plastic and other synthetic materials which are cheaper but which do not benefit our feet.
• A shoe for each season, your instinct will tell you which footwear is best for each season.

  Before ending this post we’d like to remind you that our feet hold our body weight every day and that many of the health problems affecting our feet start during childhood, ailments that can often be corrected by using the appropriate footwear, visiting the podiatrist or wearing special insoles. You’ve probably noticed how in the past very few children wore insoles and now most of them do for one reason or another. This way we are preventing many problems in the future! We hope these tips help you find the perfect shoe size and design for your children. As always, at Pisamonas deliveries and exchanges are free. See our size guide for each design to make it easier!