Why is Barefoot Walking Good for Toddlers?
Barefoot walking has many benefits for your toddler.
It supports proper foot development, activates all muscles, improves balance, straightens posture and develops sensory feedback to the brain.
Babies have soft cartilage on their feet that becomes stronger as they grow. When their feet are ready, they start to walk. To ensure proper development all parts of the foot must be involved while walking. This means that it should not be restrained by a hard sole, a narrow toe space, or a firm heel.
What are the benefits of barefoot walking for children's physical and emotional development?
95% of newborns are born with healthy feet. During growth, the feet suffer deformations from uncomfortable or ill-fitting shoes, which leads to foot problems in a large percentage of adults.
Barefoot walking helps develop the muscles and ligaments of the foot, the arch, and posture.
When children walk barefoot or with shoes with a thin sole, their feet feel every surface. This is how their feet develop naturally. The nerves in the foot send signals to the brain, which helps the child understand how to distribute their weight with each step.
Thus, barefoot walking leads to better coordination - children are not focused on the ground, because their feet feel every bump on the surface they step on. This helps children achieve a better balance, which is important in the toddler period.
Last but not least, barefoot walking helps children develop proper walking and running techniques. With barefoot shoes, children do not step on their heels as opposed to when using thick-soled shoes. This can improve overall posture.
Barefoot walking helps the body react quickly to changes in the surface by improving sensory perception. The brain develops rapidly in the early years of children. Feeling the surface helps develop the brain. It reacts and processes every signal and improves space perception, attention, sense of time and concentration.
It is also good for children's emotional development because honestly, who does not love being barefoot? Walking barefoot from an early age helps children develop socially, emotionally, and physically.
Walking barefoot helps the brain develop by reacting to and processing signals. This improves perception, attention, time sense, and concentration.
Many paediatricians recommend walking barefoot, especially on sand. This is how the brain registers whether the sand is wet or dry, warm or cold. What is the surface - hard or soft? Is it uneven? This is an invaluable feedback for the neural development.
Barefoot Safety Tips
So, we already know how important it is for toddlers to walk barefoot. Here are our tips to help keep your children safe:
- Check the area around your child for dangerous objects. Remove them if there are any.
- In the summer, always check the temperature of the sand or pavement as it can get very hot and even cause burns on the soles of the feet.
- Avoid dirty surface
How can you encourage barefoot walking at home?
Have you noticed how your child waits for every opportunity to take off his shoes and even their socks? Encourage your child to go barefoot as much as possible. You can also think of different surfaces for sensory development. The easiest way to do this is to create pathways using different materials such as:
- sand
- grass
- straw
- water
- round stones
- mud
- silicone
Common myths and misconceptions about barefoot walking for toddlers
In our practice at Zeazoo as a barefoot shoe manufacturer, we often come across various myths regarding barefoot shoes and barefoot walking for toddlers.
We would like to share our experience with you, as we believe it will be helpful to you as parents.
Your child will catch a cold if walking barefoot
No, they will not catch a cold. Children get sick from exposure to viruses, not from being barefoot. Being cold is discomforting, but this can be solved with barefoot shoes.
It is not healthy for children to walk barefoot. They should wear shoes that fit tightly around the foot and around the ankle.
Tight-fitting shoes do not allow the toes to wiggle free. This leads to poor posture and problems with balance and coordination.
The heels need to be fixed and their mobility reduced to ensure stability, and walking barefoot does not help.
Stability depends on the development of the Achilles tendon and surrounding muscles. And the development of this musculature is directly related to barefoot walking.
Any shoe with a thin sole is a barefoot shoe.
No, it isn't. In addition to being thin, the soles of barefoot shoes are very flexible and bend in all directions. Also, the soles should be thin and flat and have a wide toes box. All these components define barefoot shoes.
The soles of barefoot shoes are slip-resistant.
Quality barefoot shoes have soles that are designed to provide excellent grip on a variety of surfaces and prevent slipping.
Can children go barefoot outside and when?
When it comes to barefoot walking for toddlers or children who are already walking, a balanced approach is key.
Whenever possible and safe, like at the beach, it is best for the child to go barefoot. However, if there is a risk of injury, the best solution is to use appropriate barefoot shoes.
Barefoot walking should be combined with the right shoes. Barefoot shoes allow your child to experience walking barefoot even outdoors.
The feet carry the entire weight of the body. Shoes that are not adapted to the growth stage of the foot or are heavy, made of synthetic materials, and with thick soles prevent the proper development of the spine This can also lead to deformations of the foot later in life. The thicker the sole, the more these signals our feet send to the brain are dampened.
The shoe is designed to protect the foot from the outside environment, from possible injuries when walking on uneven and muddy terrain and from skin contamination that could lead to skin diseases.
The shoe should not deform the foot by placing it in a certain shape and interfering with its interaction with the environment. It should not injure the skin (very often the bumps and edges in a shoe make blisters). In a normally developing body (without musculoskeletal problems), the shoe should only protect the foot, not shape and support it.
In conclusion, barefoot walking is beneficial for young children. It improves stability, coordination and balance. It helps the proper development of muscles, joints and tendons in the lower leg. Improves posture. Also helps develop sensory feedback to the brain.
Whenever possible, let your toddler walk barefoot, and when going outside, the best alternative to barefoot walking is barefoot shoes.
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