Good Or Bad

It is amazing how often medical opinions change. It seems that for every study that comes out in the medical field there is another study that follows closely behind it that gives the opposite opinion or finding. Certainly the media plays a role in this, but whenever I hear or read about a different study it seems to me that people just need to use common sense.

Some things were discussed at a family meeting. A woman was there with her four month old baby. She was breast feeding her and supplementing with formula. Another woman mentioned that when her son was that age the doctor told her to start feeding him cereal. A third woman had her baby when the doctors were suggesting to not feed any solid foods for the first year. Every one of those women was given different advice about feeding their infants. Another thing discussed in that family meeting was about the doctor being very strict about infant shoes. When one of the women's children was taken to the doctor for the six month verification, the doctor told the woman to take the infant and measure him for infant shoes. She was told that the child should have the infant shoes on for at least eight hours a day to ensure proper foot development. The infant shoes were leather with hard bottoms and came up past the ankle.

The woman remembers taking in her first born to a shoe store that specialized in infant shoes. His little feet were measured and he was fitted with the high topped infant shoes. He hated wearing them. Every morning it was a struggle to get the small shoes on his feet. He would kick and cry and try to wiggle his foot out of the infant shoes before I could get them laced up. It was a stressful way for both the woman and the child to start the day, but the woman thought it was so important to follow the doctor's orders.

One of the women said that in her baby book it says not to put hard bottom shoes on the infants until they have started to walk. They are finding that infants are more likely to try taking steps if they are barefooted. She was sure that the next generation will be told another theory. Especially with your first child you are so nervous about parenting. You want to do everything right. Now when she thinks of the struggle that she went through and how upset her son made her it angers her. To this day the child does not like to wear shoes.

So up to this day some doctors might tell you that putting your child to wear infant shoes is a good idea, or you might hear that children wearing infant shoes might be harmful to them and they might not try to walk and that there is a greater chances for them to try and walk with their bare foot rather then with infant shoes. Nobody knows what to think and if infant shoes are a good idea or not, but the best thing for you to do is ask your parents about infant shoes and if you had some when you were a child. They will tell you, and if you had some when you were a child (and now you can walk) then infant shoes are good for you, if you didn't had any, then do as your parents did with you and raise your child with no infant shoes.

Back To Articles