Foot problems are extremely common. The majority of them have their origin in childhood.
98% of us are born with perfect healthy feet, yet by the time we reach adulthood, many of us suffer from various kinds of foot problems ranging from corns and calluses to bunions, deformities, blood-circulation problems, low arches and worse. Not to mention ankle-, knee- and back-related pains, many of them having their origin from feet.
In countries where people don´t use shoes, the foot problems are very rare.
Dr. Lynn Staheli, director of orthopedics at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, has concluded that the children with the healthiest and most supple feet are those who habitually go barefoot. He states:
“If you look at a place like China and you compare the feet of those who don’t wear shoes with the feet of those who do, you find that the non-shoe-wearers have better flexibility and mobility,” he said. “Their feet are stronger, they have fewer deformities and less complaints than the shoewearing population.”
to let the foot muscles and tendons get their daily exercise naturally and without additional effort
very wide on the toebox and no toe spring
the kid´s foot doesn´t need a “plaster cast” immobilizing the natural movement
for maximum comfort and odor control. The kid´s foot sweats much more than an adult´s foot.
not to alter the correct biomechanical movement
A kid’s shoe should be lightweight, flexible and shaped more or less quandrangularly, like the kid´s foot. Above all, the shoe should not have the arch inserts or stiff sides. And whenever the ground is safe enough to do so, parents should allow their children to go roam around unshod.
Dr. Staheli said that in Western nations, kids must often wear shoes to protect against hot pavement, snow, broken glass or the occasional stray hypodermic syringe on the sidewalk, among other things. He believes that the more closely a kid’s shoe resembles the barefoot state, the better. Furthermore, he says there is no evidence that corrective shoes correct anything – the supposed deformities correct themselves in the vast majority of cases. Many adult foot ailments origin in the childhood and often lead to problems in other parts of the body.
Healthy feet have 26 bones, most of which, at birth, are just soft cartilage. During childhood, these bones begin to ossify (harden) and are not fully developed until late teens.
It is, therefore, very important during these formative years to look after kid’s developing feet as they are very sensitive to pressure, and can easily adopt the shape of a shoe that doesn’t fit properly which can then prevent the foot from developing naturally.
Many people believe that “arch support” is an important contribution from shoes. Lately, an increasing number of researchers and doctors are challenging this assumption.
