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!