Healthy Feet

One of the most important yet most abused parts of the human body is our feet. Feet are designed to take body weight and give mobility. Whilst vast amounts of money are spent in educating people to look after themselves nutritionally and physically, little effort is made to educate them on the importance of foot health. Feet are often crammed into the most unsuitably shaped shoes (often made of plastic). The only time feet are given a thought is when they hurt. There is no doubt that from birth to early teens feet are at their most vulnerable, in fact there are 26 bones in the foot, and they do not completely ossify (harden) until around the age of eighteen. Qualified Shoe Fitters and Chiropodists spend the majority of their time trying to correct damage and ease discomfort that could have been avoided if shoes had been correctly fitted when purchased.

Children's feet grow erratically in fits and starts during infancy and feet can grow by a half size in a matter of weeks. Having bought the shoes it is advisable to have them checked after eight weeks to see if they still fit.   Admittedly this time in the child's development can be an expensive one!  However this is money well spent, don't be tempted to make shoes last longer or revert to badly made self-fitted footwear, as your investment in the future will pay dividends! 

The most frequent cause of anxiety for parents about their children's feet relates to the child walking pigeon toed - with their weight falling to the inside of the feet rather than the outside.  This is known as pronation.  When the child's weight comes down onto the inside margin of the foot, the muscles at the sides of the lower leg try to control the foot and keep it balanced, but are unable to do so. The foot loses its balance and rolls inwards. Well made children's fitted shoes that are stiff at the back yet flexible in the front, control children's feet and keep them balanced.  This relieves the muscles from strain and keeps shoes in good shape too.  All children's feet will pronate at some point in time to varying degrees which in almost all cases will correct itself as the muscles strengthen and develop.  During a time of pronation however, the need for good quality fitted footwear is imperative to ensure the feet develop properly.

     
 

  • Each foot has 26 bones, 19 muscles, over 100 ligaments and thousands of nerve endings. 250,000 sweat glands producing up to a quarter of a pint of sweat per day in adults feet.
  • At least 2/3rds of foot problems come from wearing the wrong footwear or ill-fitting shoes. The majority of these are caused by ill-fitting footwear worn as a child.
  • At birth the foot contains 22 partially developed bones. By school age, this number will increase to 45.
  • Over the next 13 to 14 years many of these will fuse together to form the 26 bones that make up the mature adult foot. It will take approximately 18 years for a child's foot to fully develop.
  • While most parents recognise the need for correctly fitting shoes during a child's early years of walking life, few realise that children's feet remain vulnerable to ill-fitting shoes right through their school days, up to the age of 18 years or so.
  
     

It is a concerning fact that many children suffer foot problems by their early teens, often associated with ill-fitting shoes. Yet if parents sustain vigilance throughout the young, growing foot's 18 formative years, the vast majority of children's foot problems will quite simply never happen.

At STOMP KIDS SHOES we are happy to fit shoes that best matches your needs, however, if you have particular concerns then we always recommend you see a podiatrist. We have teamed up with one of the best in the area bigfoot Podiatry in promoting healthy feet for healthy kids. Click on the link to find out more about bigfoot podiatry.

http://www.bigfootpodiatry.co.nz

Jandals good for your feet? In moderation, like everything in life. Recent studies in America have shown that wearing jandals on your feet can be as bad as wearing high heels. This is because the feet & legs are working in a different way to compensate by trying to keep them on and then when we revert back to wearing shoes, sneekers or sports shoes our body has to try and re-adjust again which can lead to injuries and un-natural development of the muscles.