Properly measuring and fitting children's feet is crucial for ensuring their long-term foot health. If your child is stuck in shoes that are too tight or restrictive, their overall health and growth could suffer in both the long and short term!
Wrong-fitting shoes can cause a variety of foot problems, such as:
- Sever’s disease
- Blisters
- Calluses
- Bunions
- Hammertoes
- Plantar fasciitis.
- And other types of deformities
However, by measuring our children's feet regularly AND choosing shoes that fit comfortably and properly, we can make sure that our little one’s feet grow and develop in the right way, setting them up for a healthy and active lifestyle.
Measuring children’s feet at home
Whilst we encourage all our customers to use a professional measuring & fitting service to ensure highly accurate and reliable results, we also understand that life as a parent can be busy.
With so much to worry about, measuring and fitting our children’s feet is often something that is pushed down our list of priorities and can easily be forgotten about.
To help those of us who have neglected regular measuring, we’ve got a few effective tips for at-home measuring so that you can get a better reading of your child’s foot size without leaving the comfort of your home.
With that being said, we cannot stress enough that measuring is only a guide – it is the fitting of the footwear that is the important part!
Get your foot measuring tools ready!
When measuring feet at home, there’s no need for a fancy foot measuring device or foot measuring tool.
In fact, you really only need three things to measure feet at home:
- Blank or lined paper
- A ruler
- A pen or marker
Simply ask your child to stand up tall and place their feet on the paper, then draw around both feet. Mark the point from the heel to the end tip of the longest toe, then measure the straight line with your ruler between the two points. This will give you the measure of your child’s foot length in inches or in centimetres! Then give us a call and we will try and assist you find the right shoes.
Stand tall
A question we get asked a lot is; how to properly position a child so as to get the most accurate measurement?
We always recommend having your child stand up tall so that they can spread their toes out wide. This is a more accurate representation of how their feet will act when wearing any type of shoes and ensures you get the largest measurement size possible. If a child is sitting, toes aren’t able to spread and the foot may measure smaller than they actually are, which will therefore lead you to buying shoes that are too small for their feet.
We also recommend measuring on a flat surface. Wooden flooring or laminate is always better than carpet!
Keep the socks on..
Measuring feet with socks on might sound a bit strange but it makes perfect sense when you think about it.
More often than not, your child will be wearing their new shoes with socks, as opposed to without. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that the extra room that socks need is factored into the overall measurement. This will help make sure the new shoes fit as comfortably as possible.
However, don’t go overboard and measure feet with thick woolly socks on! Measure with a standard pair of socks that match the usual type that your child wears when going to school or competing in sports.
Two is better than one
It’s not uncommon for our feet to be slightly different sizes to one another. Even as children, we’ll often have one foot that is wider, longer or larger than the other.
With this in mind, it’s vital that you measure both of your child’s feet, not just one! If you do find that the feet are slightly different sizes, you should always buy shoes that fit the larger foot, otherwise you risk that foot being uncomfortable and squished when placed in the new pair of shoes.
Remember that it’s always better to buy shoes with a little wiggle room so that feet can grow into the shoes in a more natural way, rather than squeezing feet into shoes that are overly tight, which can then stunt growth and cause health problems later down the line.
Try a professional shoe fitter!
Even though measuring children’s feet at home is one way to gauge size and check up on how their feet are growing and developing, it’s not a substitute for a professional measuring and fitting service. As we repeatedly say....measuring is only a guide, a starting point....it is the correct fit of shoes that matters.
Having your children's feet professionally measured will ensure a highly accurate size measurement for each individual foot. At Ruby Ruby, we will also recommend the type and shape of shoe that will best suit your child’s feet.
Our professional fitting service will go one step further and match your child’s feet with a pair of shoes that fit comfortably, encourage proper growth and suit their personal style and taste!
To find out more about our professional measuring and fitting service, get in touch with our team and we’ll be more than happy to answer all your questions.