Friday, January 25th, 2008

Keep Babies Out of Shoes and Walkers

Yesterday I was in my chiropractor’s office for my knee problem. We started talking about pronation. In my case, I have low arches in my feet, which has caused some problems in my moving around. Anyway, two points he made I thought were quite interesting:

  1. Parents should keep babies out of shoes as long as possible. Let them run around in bare feet or wearing soft shoes that do not provide sole support. It will help their feet develop.
  2. Keep babies out of those walkers. When I talked to a friend last night, she said she thought it was only for safety reasons. The doctor told me that babies in the walkers try to walk while half sitting down. This can really mess up the development of their hip and spine structures.

These were just what I heard and I did not spend time doing researches to confirm either claim. I think if a parent has never given it any thoughts, maybe it’s worth time talking to a pediatrician about it. I am going to tell all my family and friends who have little babies about what I learned.