If the Shoe Doesn't Fit ...
Children who wear shoes that are too small risk serious foot injuries
While Cinderella fit perfectly into her glass slipper, kids today may not get the same happy ending. According to a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Zurich Blagrist in Switzerland, children are wearing shoes too small for their feet, leaving many at high risk to develop serious foot deformities.
The study, which evaluated nearly 250 children, measured children's foot size compared to the size of their indoor and outdoor shoes. "The most striking finding in our study was that more than 90 percent of both outdoor and indoor shoes or slippers worn by the children were too small," says Norman Espinosa, M.D, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Zurich Balgrist in Switzerland. "Interestingly, the shoe sizes given by the manufacturers almost never matched with the true sizes measured by our group."
With outdoor shoes, nearly 53 percent were too small for kids, while 13.3 percent were too big. More than 60 percent of indoor shoes were too small, 10.2 percent were too big. Nearly 90 percent of outdoor shoes were smaller than the stated size, 97.6 percent with indoor shoes.
The results also found that 3.3 percent of children had developed a foot deformity called Hallux Valgus in which the big toe begins to side angle towards the second toe causing a bunion.
To prevent these problems, Dr. Espinosa recommends checking a child's foot size with every new purchase, or every month during a growth spurt. Parents should also consider the actual size of the shoe, rather than what the label says.
"We truly did not expect such a large percentage of incorrectly declared shoe sizes," he says. "We now know that we should focus on parental education to help prevent early onset of juvenile foot deformity."
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