Foot Talk Fridays : Best school shoes for Orthotics

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Welcome to Foot Talk Fridays!

Today we’re going to talk about children’s school shoes. 

So, the time is coming where you’re trying to leave it as close as possible to the start of this school term so that the child’s feet is accurately fitted to the school shoes for the school term. 

For example, when buying shoes, we want a shoe that’s quite sturdy and strong. These are Adidas and I really like it because they have velcro straps so it makes it very easy to take on and off. 

Older children (over the age of eight and on wards) we encourage them by that age that they should be tying their own laces for school. But for very young children it makes it easier for moms and dads to have velcro straps. 

The reason that we also like Adidas, like this type for the school shoes (it comes in black for school and white for sports) is they have nice insoles that are fitted.

Now the good thing about Adidas and Eco school shoes do it, also – do you see this grid pattern here? This shows where the child’s foot should be fitted when they’re in the shop (that first line). Then these diagonal lines here show where the child should be able to have growth during the school terms. That last line is where the children should get a new pair of shoes when their toes get to the end there.

This is really helpful as well if you’re not sure about the shoe fitting in the shop, you can always take this easily out of the shoe (you saw how easily this one came out of the shoe). Ask your child not to sit but to stand on this, I don’t want them to be sitting when they place their feet on it, I want them to stand on it. Just get the heel matching up to this back line and the big toe and small toes should not be beyond that first line here. Then that’s the perfect size for them.

 Getting onto girl school shoes, so for example your child does wear an orthotic for flat feet or something like that, the insole comes out of this shoe and quite a large orthotic (this is a child that leans in almost 45 degrees) will fit into a shoe like this. 

The reason that we like this is that it has this extra velcro strap on the top which acts like a seat belt, so that when the child is running or if they have a strong orthotic inside there, the seat belt strap keeps the foot and their heel down inside the shoe. 

Now another reason for this is so that you can get quite a generous sized shoe for the child to allow them to grow. If you buy your child ballerina style shoes without this Mary Jane style strap, you will have to get a tight-fitting shoe and we see so many young girls with corns and calluses on the outside of their toes because they had to get tight fitting shoes so it doesn’t slip off with their heel.

So that you can do the same thing that is allowed for other types of shoes in children, you want this extra space to grow. You’ll be able to do that in a Mary Jane style shoe, they will have the extra space to grow without the heel slipping out the shoe because they have the seat belt strap. So please, please, please for children, please don’t buy the ballerina style of shoes. I see there’s not much cushioning normally underneath so they feel heel pain and there’s not much support at the side of the ballerina pump so the arches become quite soft and strained, it can cause a lot of arch pain. And then of course they have to be tight-fitting style school shoes to keep the shoe on, so please don’t buy ballerina styles -please buy the Mary Jane’s styles with the strap on the top.

I hope that help with finding shoes for children for the upcoming school term. 

Enjoy your Friday!

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