COLOR PAGE
View Your Cart
FAQ Page
Why Soft Sole?
All About The Options
Policies
|
|
Home | Links | Gift Certificates | Feedback | About Us
Why Soft Sole?
More and more doctors agree that barefoot is best for foot development
and balance in infants and toddlers. Sometimes bare feet are not always
an option for many reasons. These soft sole leather shoes are the best
choice for babies and toddlers, because they are the next best thing to
bare feet! They provide the flexibility new walkers and toddlers need,
yet protect the feet from certain things such as hot pavement, hard
surfaces, sticks or woodchips on a playground and bee stings, etc...
But
why get soft sole shoes in the winter? Soft sole shoes are great in the
winter! Carry them right in your purse/diaper bag. Once inside, remove
those nasty, heavy, drippy winter boots, and slip on the soft sole
shoes. They can even fit under boots if they are roomy enough inside.
Great for parties, grandmas house, playdates, restaurants, preschool...the list is endless.
Some research articles on foot development:
Recent
research has shown that children are more likely to have good posture
if they go without shoes as often as is possible and safe, according to
Janet Perry, M.P.T., a physical therapist with Rehabilitation Network
in Portland, Oregon. "That way they get more `sensory information` from
their feet and will have better walking and postural skills." Children
should be allowed to go shoeless ... in places where it`s safe to walk
barefoot as a way to improve their posture, according to Perry.
Udaya Bhaskara Rao and Benjamin Joseph.
"The Influence of Footwear on the Prevalence of Flat Foot"
The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, 74B(4), 1992, pp. 525-527.
Abstract:
We analyzed the static footprints of 2300 children between the ages of
four and 13 years old to establish the influence of footwear on the
prevalence of flat foot. The incidence among children who used footwear
was 8.6% compared with 2.8% in those who did not (p < 0.001).
Significant differences between the predominance in shod and unshod
children were noted in all age groups, most marked in those with
generalized ligament laxity. Flat foot was most common in children who
wore closed-toe shoes, less common in those who wore sandals or
slippers, and least in the unshod.
Our findings suggest that shoe-wearing in early childhood is detrimental to the development of a normal longitudinal arch.
In
Europe and America flat foot is a common reason for attendance at a
children`s orthopaedic clinic, but in India children are seldom brought
for treatment for flat foot. The few children who do attend with this
complaint are from affluent urban families and they all wear shoes. In
our clinic we have never seen a child from the farming community or
from the family of a manual labourer who complained of flat foot.
.....
The
high concentration of flat foot among six-year-old children who wore
shoes as compared with those who did not, implies that the critical age
for development of the arch is before six years.
.....
Our
cross-sectional study suggests that shoe-wearing in early childhood is
detrimental to the development of a normal or a high medial
longitudinal arch. The susceptibility for flat foot among children who
wear shoes is most evident if there is associated ligament laxity. We
suggest that children should be encouraged to play unshod and that
slippers and sandals are less harmful than closed-toe shoes.
Go to http://www.unshod.org/pfbc/pfbc.htm for studies on foot developement and going barefoot |
|
