HEALTH
What Shoes Are Best For
Children? Probably None
By Farhan Shah
Children’s shoes are
a multi-million dollar
industry but are you
spending all that money
to the detriment of
your child? We
investigate the facts of
children’s footwear.
While doubts have been casted on the
veracity of the benefits of barefoot
running, thanks to a recently-settled
lawsuit filed against the company
Vibram for falsely claiming that its
iconic running shoe had multiple health
benefits for the foot, being barefoot is
still the way to go for children in the
midst of growing up and finding their
feet in this world.
The idea of barefoot being best for
children was first mooted by Dr
Lynn Staheli in 1991. He studied the
development of people’s feet around
the world and discovered that, in
general, the non-shoe-wearers
tended to develop better flexibility
and mobility. He also noted that
“their feet were stronger and had
fewer deformities, and they also
had less complaints than the shoewearing population”.
To understand why barefoot is good for
children, it’s important to appreciate
what goes on in a child’s foot during
the growing up years.
YOUR FOOT’S GROWING
UP YEARS
At birth, a baby’s foot contains no
bones at all; it is essentially a large
piece of cartilage that later ossifies
slowly over more than a decade to
become the 28 bones found in an adult
foot. Not many parents know this but
many babies actually begin walking
with their feet either rotated inward
or outward due to being cramped into
the foetal position in the uterus for
almost a year. Most babies also have
flat feet because the sole is covered
by a thick pad of fat; “it is only
through walking that the intricate
mesh of muscles and ligaments in
the foot strengthen and pull upwards
into a genuine arch”. Many babies
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Family & Life • Jul 2014
grow out of these gait problems by
the age of 16, if not earlier.
Dr Staheli highly recommends parents
to leave their children’s feet alone and
not subject it to corrective footwear.
“The growing foot has a remarkable
capacity to adjust itself,” he says.
Having said that though, sometimes,
it’s almost impossible for your children
to walk barefoot all the time. Concrete
pavements get incredibly hot; sharp
objects strewn along the path can
puncture the skin; bacteria and dirt
lie in wait to infect the nearest open
wound. Therefore, children need to
wear shoes for practical reasons. The
key is in choosing the right footwear
that doesn’t hinder your child’s foot
development. According to podiatry
journal The Foot, the shape and
constriction of different footwear can
change the function and structure of a
growing child’s foot. The younger the
child is, the greater the potential for
damage. Podiatrist Tracy Byrne says:
“Most children’s shoes ought to come
with a government health warning.
They are like awful little bricks – too
stiff and rigid with no flexibility at the
sole and too much heel raise.”
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PAIR
It was this desire for design combined
with a difficulty in finding the perfect
pair of shoes for his son Jack that
compelled Professor Maurice Hsu to
craft shoes for toddlers and children.
When choosing shoes for children,
Professor Hsu recommends that
parents look out for three things:
outsole
The
material used
The
shape of the shoe
The
Professor Hsu has personally done his
own research in this area and came
up with a patented keyboard outsole
design, named as such because it
resembles a computer keyboard and
which can be found in his own range of
children’s shoes – be*U. “The keyboard
outsole maximises the flexibility and
shock absorbency in the heel while
the protruding parts ensure that the
shoe flexes to its maximum capacity,”
he shares. He must have known what
he’s doing; the keyboard sole has
been lauded by many people and has
won several international design and
creation awards including the renowned
2008 French i’Nov Invention Gold Award.
For parents who would like to go into
more detail, Professor Hsu has come up
with a checklist of features you should
look out for:
rounded edge to mimic
A
barefoot walking
Hand-sewn stitches to give extra
room for the feet to move around
Heel counter support to hold the feet
more firmly in place while providing
support for the heel
Wide girth so that feet are
not constricted
And what are the benefits of following
the checklist to a T? Children who
wear anatomically correct footwear
have reported increased foot strength,
balance, mobility and ankle function.
Another practice that Professor Hsu
highly discourages parents to engage in
is buying bigger shoe sizes for children
for economic reasons. “Choosing the
right pair of shoes for kids is crucial for
their overall foot development and can
affect them for a lifetime,” he says.
If spending money on the right pair of
children’s shoes can be a bit daunting,
there is one other perfect option though
– going barefoot.