SHOES FOR BABIES

Do babies need shoes? If yes, then when and what kind? It seems to be a big hustle for parents to choose the right ones, and what is interesting that the whole hustle is about their look rather than anything else. By the time the baby makes its first steps with his beautiful little feet (at the age of 9-10 months) the sleepless mom is more concerned about the shoes as a decoration than a tool of improving his ability to walk.

Do we think that this aspect doesn't mean anything for babies? Do we think that they are too small to "understand" the meaning of it? May be they do not understand indeed, but they do feel, no doubt about it. Considering that babies start walking at about 9 months of age and before that have experienced standing and walking with the outside help, they have really not much time for exploring the importance of shoes in their movement skill development.

But exactly at this age the base of our children's ability to move properly is formed. Many experts, teachers, parents tend to think that learning to walk and run is a natural process, some type of uncontrolled, accidental experience of trial and errors, when our children learn "spontaneously" how to execute their motions in the best way.

From this point of view the role of shoes is not important. Therefore, the shoe industry just reflects this vision and works on "pretty" shoes. Whatever is there on the market (with some happy exceptions, happening more often in recent years) it's all about color, form, or decoration aspects of shoes and not about their functional value.

Teaching babies how to walk and run is a low priority for the shoe industry. Fashion is a domination scheme and is logical for the society where learning to walk and run is a "natural" process of trials and errors. This philosophy dominates everything up to adult age and still has a strong influence at present time. But just with the questions of "What is an error?" and "How should we correct it?" we can add some doubt to this kind of vision.

Considering that an error, by the dictionary definition, is a deviation from the standard, we have to come up with the definition of the standard of walking and running. Do we leave it for babies to figure it out? Leave this responsibility on their intuition and some number of negative trials?

Coming back to the previous statement we have to understand that at this age the right movement development is fundamental for their whole life. It is the first stroke in the whole picture of movement, building the matrix of movement, the most profound sensory system of movement, missing which will echo with painful consequences later in life. Something as basic, as learning to speak.

Babies do not understand the importance of this, but we should. From this point of view, baby shoes need to be made certainly in a fashionable and colorful manner, but also with the functional aspect of walking and running properly in mind. They need to be helpful in building a profound sensory system, in enhancing muscular coordination and perceiving influence from the environment (gravity) in the best possible way for the regulation of their ability to move.

Dr.Romanov

P.S. Few children naturally run good, majority has to be taught how to run. However, there are still more examples of good running form than among adults
P.S.S. As adult shoes, babies' shoes should be thin soled lightweight and flexible.