New Milestone

Robbie started standing up and walking by himself from the middle of the floor.  From what many parents have told us this is when kids can really get into trouble, so far he's been his normal good self.  Luckily at this point his walking speed isn't too fast, but that will probably change soon.  I'm sure before we know it he'll be running and into something he's not supposed to be before we can stop him.  I suppose that he's being slowed down a little by the fact that he's dragging an assortment of toys with him, specifically his toddler lawn chair.

Shoes

Robbie has been walking on his own for a few weeks now, and we've already had people say that he should have shoes on.  Kelly and I both disagree with this.  There is growing research showing that kids should be barefoot or socks (but what kid keeps their socks on) as much as possible.  The bones in kids feet at this stage are not bone they are just cartilage, and putting shoes on their feet will deform them.  Allowing kids to go without shoes allows their feet to grow naturally as they were intended.  That being said we both know there are times and places where Robbie will need to put shoes on, when it's snowing for example.  We of course would not force Robbie to go barefoot, it would be his choice.  We have tried to have Robbie walk around with his shoes on, and he simply can't walk in them right now.  He's used to being able to feel the ground.  I liken it to trying to learn a fine motor skill with your hands while wearing thick winter mittens, it's not easy.  I'm not trying to preach to anyone as to what they should do, I'm just trying to get people to understand why we are doing what we're doing.

Kelly and I are both avid barefooters.  We wear shoes as little as possible, that includes sandals.   We do this for various reasons.  Our main reason we started was pain.  I was having bad pain in my feet and started doing research on the matter.  I found a lot of sources saying that just wearing shoes less often could alleviate the problem.  So before I paid money to see a podiatrist I thought I'd give it a try, and it worked great and I haven't looked back.  Kelly on the other hand has fibromyalgia and arthritis in basically all her joints, as well as one leg being about 1/2" shorter than the other.  She had tried many different things, including seeing specialists and rheumatologists, trying to help reduce her pain.  She followed my lead and found that going barefoot as much as possible helped tremendously with her pain.  We even went barefoot hiking when we went on vacation last summer, which was very enjoyable (you can look it up it's growing in popularity).  Here are a couple of pictures from that trip:











I know many of you are thinking to yourselves that's dangerous or gross all those germs.  Well it really isn't very dangerous, your feet toughen up pretty well and neither of us have had a bad injury.  Only small cuts or scrapes, which in our opinion is worth it since we are living with less pain.  Regarding germs, you are exposed to even worse germs in your shoes, the ones that cause your feet to smell, and athletes foot needs a warm moist environment to grow (as in shoes).  Anything else you may have heard as a danger is also overblown.  I could go into it but don't want to on this blog, trust me I've done my research.

Here are some informational links, some of the comparisons are on the extreme end but they are just trying to make the point that shoes are bad for foot health:

Children's Shoes Cause Health Problems Later In Life
Parents of Barefoot Children
Nature's Child Blog
Society For Barefoot Living
Americaspodiatrist.com
The Primalfoot Alliance

We hope that you will support us or at least understand our reasons for going barefoot.  Who knows, maybe you will one day too!

Robbie Walking By Himself

Robbie had been taking one or two steps by himself to the couch or to one of us over the past week or so.  Well yesterday I decided to try and hold his chest instead of his hands to go (assisted) walking, previously he didn't like walking like that, he wanted to hold at least one of our hands.  He however let me do it this time and it seemed like he didn't need my support so I let go and he walked a good six steps.  I immediately texted Kelly at work (I think she left a little early to see it).  Shortly after she got home we took this video below.  It is amazing how much more competent he got at walking since this video was taken already.  He walked all the way from the step down all the way to the front door by himself, turn and all.  As I'm sure other parents already know this is very exciting!