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When it comes to taking care of your baby, you want to do everything you can to make sure that they do not feel any kind of discomfort and that they are always away from danger of any kind.
We also want them to be looking the best they can because they are our angels, right? So what is one of those things that make your toddlers look spectacular and give them some sort of safety as well?
It’s the toddler shoes!
Toddler shoes don’t just protect the feet of your baby but if you pick one of the best toddler shoes, they also make them look great, especially if they are color coordinated with other clothes. Shoes for toddlers are made so that the learning to walk phase of the baby is very safe.
It keeps them from slipping while walking, protects their feet, and gives them a sense of security that even if they slip or fall, it will not hurt them, and choosing only the best toddler shoes will ensure all those things.
Toddler shoes come in several types, styles, and colors. You just have to find the right one amongst the horde of shoes that will fit the requirements you want it to. Toddler shoes are available for different needs. These needs could be shoes suitable for kids learning to walk or kids with wide feet or shoes with extra comfort, just anything that you might need.
So in this article, I am going to be telling you how to pick the best toddler shoes, what kind of shoes would be suitable for what kind of toddlers, when your child will need to start wearing shoes, and all the other things that would help you buy only the best shoe for your child. So let us get started.
Different Types Of Toddler Shoes
As I mentioned already when you are out to buy one of the best toddler shoes, you will come across a lot of types of shoes and it might be difficult for you to properly grasp the idea of which one you are going to need amongst all the options available to you.
So in such a case, you can try and figure out your needs or the purpose why you are buying the shoes in the first place, and based on that, you can choose the best toddler shoes. These are the general types in which you will find shoes for toddlers.
Shoes Suitable For Learning To Walk
This is probably one of the most common reasons why you would be looking to buy a shoe for your kid. When your baby is just growing up, they would need a safe environment around them so that they could start to learn how to walk.
Falling while you are trying to learn how to walk is probably the most natural thing out there and you would obviously be worried that your kid might hurt their feet if they fall because they could not balance themselves on their feet.
One of the most common reasons why toddlers fall a lot while learning to walk is that their feet are tiny and they do not have enough strength in their legs yet to support their weight or rather, their legs are not used to carrying the weight of their bodies and that is why it becomes essential that you choose only from the best toddler shoes and ensure the safety of your child.
You can choose any style or color that your child likes, that is not the important part, what is important is that you choose a pair of shoes good enough to protect your kid in case they have a bad accidental fall.
Shoes For Kids With Wide Feet
Another type of shoe in the list of best toddler shoes are the shoes that are specially designed for toddlers that have wide feet. Most brands would design their shoes in a way that they would be able to accommodate the wide feet of a kid but sometimes, certain kids would require shoes that have some extra width to them.
These shoes are not just helpful for kids with wide feet, they would also be optimal for kids who wear leg braces. Because of the extra width in the shoes, the leg braces can fit in very easily without having to size up. These shoes can come with some additional features like having an impact-absorbing midsole or a rubber outside.
These features would just help in making the shoe more comfortable to be worn by your kids and shoes with these features would truly be one of the best toddler shoes. These additional features might cause the price of the shoe to go up a bit but they are totally worth it for the comfort they provide.
Toddler Shoes For Winters
Like you need different types of clothes for different weathers, shoes are no different and when it comes to your babies, they are even more sensitive to the changing weather and that is the reason why they would need shoes specially designed for such purposes and that is why you would find that manufacturers produce shoes for kids, suitable for winters.
The shoes made for winters are insulated and they are perfect for cold weather days. These shoes can be used even when the temperatures drop below the freezing point and that makes this one of the best toddler shoes for the winters. Sometimes, these shoes even come with a water-resistant feature.
Toddler Shoes Suitable For Rain
Another type of shoe in the list of best toddler shoes is waterproof shoes. These shoes are very suitable to be worn in regions where you do not know when it is going to rain or even when your child goes out after it has rained or snowed and the snow is melting.
These shoes will prevent your toddler’s feet from getting wet and because of their build, they are light in weight and they dry pretty fast as well. These shoes also offer you protection against slipping because the ground is rather slippery during or after rain. These waterproof shoes have a rubber sole to help your kid keep a firm grip on the ground.
Orthopedic Toddler Shoes
These shoes make it to the list of best toddler shoes not because they look great, which they do by the way, but because of the special features they have. Some kids have issues with their feet bones and as there are several bones in a toddler’s feet, it might make you worry more about their safety and that is what these shoes help you with.
These orthopedic shoes will provide great support to a toddler that might have issues with their feet, muscles or bones. Pediatric orthopedists also recommend the usage of these shoes if you do not know that such shoes indeed exist.
You can find these shoes in a lot of different styles and those make these the best toddler shoes. Although you should keep in mind that because of the special feature in this shoe, the price might be a bit high and you might also want to buy a shoe that comes with an adjustable size feature.
The reason behind that is that kids grow very fast and they will be too big for the shoes you bought for them in just a few months. You should not hesitate in spending this money though because if you are willing to loosen your pocket this early on, you will be saved a lot of trouble and money in the upcoming years.
Other Types Of Shoes
There are other shoes suitable for toddlers that are worth mentioning in this article because they are one of the best toddler shoes because of all the things they are suitable for. As I said before, a lot of toddler shoes come with some extra features to make the shoes more compatible or comfortable.
One such feature is to make the shoes as comfortable for the kids as possible. To make the shoes as comfortable as possible, things like flexible soles are added to the shoe. Because of the developing feet of your child, it is essential to accommodate things that will not hurt your child if their feet grow and wide toe boxes do just that.
Other things include an outsole made of rubber along with an added pattern that helps to make the shoe more gripping. There are some other features that make these shoes comfortable to wear as well.
The next type of shoes that couldn’t make it to the best toddler shoes list but still deserve to be there are the shoes made especially for active kids. Kids who are always on their feet and love exploring things and playing would roam here and there and that exerts some rough pressure on them.
That is why it becomes essential that shoes be made from things that are durable. These shoes can come with features like having a hook and loop strap to make it easy to put on the shoe or remove it. There are some athletic shoes available to be bought as well.
Now that you know the types of best toddler shoes, let us move on to other things like how you can go about buying these shoes or what things you should be looking for when making a purchase.
How To Pick The Correct Size?
One of the most important things when it comes to buying any product is to see whether the product is compatible with you or the person who is going to be using them. So how do you figure out if a shoe is compatible with your toddler?
When you are out to buy one of the best toddler shoes then the things that you have to keep in mind is that the shoe should be of the perfect size and that it should feel comfortable. There are other things as well like trying to see if your baby is growing fast and if they are, then you should buy a shoe that would not get short or tight too quickly for your baby.
So now that we are talking about the size, let us look at a size guide for the best toddler shoes. You should keep in mind that a lot of different brands or retailers categorize shoes in different ways. Shoes that are typically made for younger kids, i.e. for babies and toddlers, start at size 0 and they go all the way up to size 13.5.
This might or might not be confusing but when these brands added another scale to measure the size for older kids, things did become confusing because, for older kids, this scale starts at size 1 instead of size 0. Another size range can be defined by the sizes 4 to 9, which is suitable for toddlers of the age 1 to 3.
Obviously, the age might vary for a lot of kids but this is just the general range. When you are looking for the best toddler shoes and you are going to be buying them online, make sure the words like walker or toddler are mentioned.
Shoes labeled as youth or big kid would mean it is for a grown kid. If you are not sure about your child’s shoe size, you can measure it very easily at home, you just need a sizing device or a ruler and then measure your kids’ feet size in inches with it. You can find out the size chart online and that would help you determine the shoe size of your kid based on their feet size.
Looking for the best toddlers shoes can be a difficult task and you shouldn’t make it even more complicated by confusing things, so make sure you have a clear idea of whatever you are doing. Now that you know how to pick the correct size for your kid’s best toddler shoes, let us move on to some important questions that you might need answers to.
Around What Age Do Kids Start Wearing Functional Shoes?
Before starting to look for the best toddler shoes, it is essential that you know whether your child is ready to start wearing these shoes or not. A kid needing a functional shoe depends on when they start to walk. On average, kids around the age of 1-year start walking.
This might vary from 10 months of age to 14 or 16 months as well. When a kid is starting to learn, it is best that they do so on bare feet at the very start. When kids walk barefoot, it will allow the muscles in their feet to grow and develop strength all over. You will need to start looking for the best toddler shoes when they start walking more frequently.
You will need to give shoes to your kid when they start going out often or get more daring in their exploring. You will want to protect their feet in these times and getting shoes for them would be the best way to do that.
When kids have started walking, you would want them to stretch their legs as often as they can and if you buy them shoes that restrict their movement in any way then that would just not do and that is why you should buy one of the best toddler shoes that support walking, protect your child’s feet as well as are comfortable to be worn.
You will also need to make sure that you do not buy a shoe that is too tight or too loose on your kid’s feet as that would result in them falling because of the discomfort. There are a lot of things that you should be looking for when buying one of the best toddler shoes. Let us discuss what these things are.
Things To Pay Attention To In Best Toddler Shoes
You must know that the feet of any kid grow fast, especially when they are just a year or two old. Their feet grow so fast that any shoe you buy for them might not last more than a couple of months. Sometimes, they might last for 3 or 3 and a half months but that is rare.
To make sure that your child is not experiencing any kind of discomfort, you should be checking the fit of the shoe every month or so and if your kid shows discomfort while wearing the shoes, it means it is time that you bought a new pair for them.
Whenever you are about to buy one of the best toddler shoes, you must keep a lot of things like its price, fitting, comfort, style, etc. in mind. You have to make sure that you do not waste your money by buying a pair of shoes that would be useless for your kid because it is not comfortable or something.
If you keep in mind the fact that your child is going to outgrow the shoes in a few months, then you’ll be okay. You also need to make sure that the shoes give enough breathing room to your child’s feet. A good shoe should be light in weight and stable.
You also need to make sure that the heel cup or the area of a shoe surrounding the heel of your toddler does not collapse when you pinch it with your fingers, if they do, then that shoe is not safe enough to be used by your toddler. Another thing to keep in mind is the freedom of the toe, the sole should allow the kid’s toes to move freely.
Although the space given for the movement of the toe should not be too much or too little as that would become an issue. The overall rigidity of the shoe is also important. The shoe should not twist in the middle when you twist them, some shoes are flexible like that, so make sure that whatever shoe you buy is good enough to support your child’s feet.
Things To Keep In Mind While Buying The Best Toddler Shoes
As I have mentioned already, the best toddler shoes come in a lot of types along with a number of features and styles and prints and colors. The size of the shoe you buy would depend on the size of your toddler’s feet but with everything else, you can decide what suits your children’s needs best.
You should make sure that there is enough space for your kid’s feet, width-wise, it should be a good fit, not too tight or loose. What shoe you buy also depends on the weather. There are shoes suitable for all types of weather, be it the winters or the monsoon or snow.
You can also choose a shoe made up of leather or any other kind of material as long as it does not bother your child. If your child has any feet health issues, then there are shoes available that will support your kid’s feet as well and of course, like any other type of shoes, the best toddler shoes also come for various uses like hiking or water play, or just everyday usage.
Before buying a shoe, make sure you make your kid try them on and see if they feel any prickling or any other kind of discomfort because a lot of shoes can cause rashes or itching because of poor finish. You should also not pass down shoes from elder siblings to younger ones because those shoes would be worn out.
Lastly, one of the most important things to consider would be the price of any shoe. There is a range of prices that you can choose the best toddler shoes from. For some people, shoes under $30 dollars would be enough as these shoes are just going to last a few months.
There are more expensive shoes as well that can cost you around $50 dollars and sometimes higher as well. If you buy those shoes, then make sure that you absolutely need them and are not just wasting your precious, hard-earned money.
Closure | Best Toddler Shoes
When you are about to buy one of the best toddler shoes, what you should be worrying about is the comfort and safety of your child. The price of the shoes comes next and lastly, you should pay attention to the sizes and colors of them.
As long as the safety of your child is ensured, everything else can be dealt with later. Toddler shoes are meant to help your kid learn how to walk and to keep their feet safe during the process. So, get the best toddler shoes for your baby and watch them smile.
Till then, check out more of our articles.
