Its a valid question I get asked a lot working as a Podiatrist! Some parents feel like they need shares in “Athletes foot” because they are constantly buying new shoes due to rapid growth. While others worry their child’s feet aren’t growing enough! Put simply, we just all grow at different rates! Remember those growth charts the health nurse would place your baby on and classify their growth in percentiles? Seems silly now how much I worried about whether my child hit the “right” percentage! Be rest assured that there is always a range, and in the middle an average. With feet, growth patterns of the individual don’t generally relate to problems.

One thing parents can look at for help and reference is our own Geneology. Ever looked at your child’s feet and thought “ oh my gosh they have my feet”? Consider how you grew and how your child grows. Is your child getting similar pain that you did with your feet as a kid? Interesting, that there can be so many connections. So as they blame you for that achy foot, you can likely look down the line and blame mum /dad … and so on.

Thankfully there is an end point. Girls foot growth starts slowing around 14 years of age and we can pretty confidently say will stay within 1/2 a size of their shoe size come 16 years old. Boys on the other hand take a few extra years to form consistent footwear size for their adult life. It’s a great idea to get your child properly sized each time they get new shoes. But if you find yourself at a store where they don’t offer sizing, use the parent “thumb trick”. Place your thumb from the end of the toe box whilst your child stands in the shoe. Make sure there is a parent thumb size to their big toe to allow for growth and reduce trauma from shoes on toes.

If your considering Kidzoles and concerned that your child is too large for the age target of each design don’t worry too much. You can go up into the next age group category to meet the size. I would recommend however, that you opt to put the orthotic in a stronger heel countered shoe. Hold the shoe and squeeze the heel. It shouldn’t buckle or flatten to the sole. Sneakers are a good option here. This will help support the foot on the larger Kidzole range as lateral (outside border of orthotic) support decreases in the age groups of products. Kidzoles caters to a size US 11.5 Mens.