How to Find Your Footlength
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Do your feet hurt after a long day of walking? It could be time for you to measure your feet and find out if you’ve been wearing the wrong size all along!
Many of us have tried buying a pair of shoes online and then hope for the best when they arrive. The chance that they fit is 50/50, as shoe sizes vary a lot from brand to brand. Some brands operate in half sizes, and Adidas even has three-quarter sizes. Therefore, it may be a good idea to measure your feet to find out which size really suits you best. When even was the last time you got your feet measured?
Once you know your size, you can google about the brand you want to buy a shoe from and see if they run large or small. That way, you can narrow down which size will suit you best. You should also be aware that different countries use different sizes. There are EU sizes, US sizes, UK sizes, etc. However, you can find many websites that translate the sizes, so you know which one to buy.
How to measure your feet
When measuring your foot, use a piece of paper, a pencil, a ruler, and preferably a friend, even if it is not necessary. You should measure your foot in the evening where it is slightly swollen.
Lay the paper on the floor and place your foot on top of it. You can either ask your friend to draw a line at the end of your longest toe and at the end of your heel, or you can do it yourself. Remove your foot from the paper and measure the distance between the two lines. Be as accurate as possible and include the millimeters. Write your measurement down on a piece of paper and save it. Now you can look up various charts on the internet that will show you which shoe size is right for you. They should be easy to find. Or try our free online shoe size calculater here.
Too many people are wearing shoes in the wrong size
An American study shows that 88 percent of American women wear shoes that are too small, and 70 percent of American men wear shoes that are either too small or too big. If your shoes squeeze your feet you can develop crooked toes, hammer toes, corns and blisters. It also prevents the blood supply from running optimally.
Life is too short to wear ill-fitting shoes. When you have figured out your correct size and have bought a new pair of fitting shoes, you will probably ask yourself how you could go for that long with discomfort in your feet. Best of luck!
How fast are kids feet growing?
It is important for your child’s physical development that they do not wear too small shoes. In addition to the fact that the feet will not grow properly, too small shoes can cause nuisances such as thorns, blisters, and wounds in addition to the blood supply to the feet being inhibited. Therefore, it is very important that you buy shoes with enough room for your child to grow in them, but not so big that the feet are skating around.
Most likely, your child’s feet are growing at lightning speed, and it can be difficult for you to keep up. Here’s a chart that show you how much you child’s feet are growing.
0-2Y = 0.8 in per year
2-6Y = 0.6 in per year
6-13Y = 0.4 in per year
How do I meassure my child’s feet?
If your child is old enough to stand on his own, you can measure his feet by making him stand still on a piece of white paper without socks on. Then take a pencil and follow the outline of his foot. It is very important that you do not tilt the pencil but keep it straight. Otherwise, you will get the wrong measurements of the child’s feet. Next, measure from the heel to the longest toe and write down the measurement. On various websites, you can translate the centimeter measurement into shoe sizes.
It is estimated that you should buy new shoes for your infant about every two months. As your child gets older it will be about every six months.
How much room should I leave in a pair of shoes for my child’s feet to grow in?
This is a good question. A question many parents probably ask themselves every time they go out to buy new shoes for their child – which, as we stated before, is fairly often.
A good rule of thumb is to leave about 0.4 – 0.6 inches of space in a pair of new shoes. That way, they will be a little big at first but over the next few months your child will grow into them. Alternatively, you can buy a sole which you can put in the shoe for the first few weeks and then take it out once your child’s feet have grown.
When buying winter boots, it may be an idea to buy an even larger size, up to 0.6 inches in growing space, as a thick thermo sole may often be needed to further keep your child’s feet warm and dry even after a long day of playing around in a snowdrift.
How often should you buy new shoes for your toddler?
Have you recently become a first-time mom or dad to a little wonder? Right now, you are guaranteed to be filled with equal parts fear and amazement and not least a whole lot of questions. There are, in fact, an incredible number of things that parenting literature does not answer. In this article, unfortunately, we cannot remove all your worries, but we can give you one less thing to worry about. Namely, how often your infant or toddler should have new shoes.
The limbs of a newborn shoot in all directions in their first year of life. It is as if they are growing a whole size in a single night. The same goes for their feet. Between the ages 0 – 2 a child’s feet grow up to 0.8 inches a year. Therefore, it will be a good idea if you measure your child’s feet every two months. In practice, this will also mean that you will have to go out and buy shoes for your baby or toddler around every two or three months.
It sounds expensive, and it is, but when your child reaches the age of 2 – 5 years, you can rejoice in the fact that the feet grow a little slower. 0.6 inches a year to be exact. You should try and measure your child’s feet every three months. And when your child is between 6 – 11 years old, the feet grow 0.4 inches a year. You should measure your child’s feet once every six months. Remember that it is always recommended that you measure your child’s feet before buying new footwear.
What to consider when buying shoes for your toddler
But back to the babies and toddlers. Your newborn has what is called a fat pad under its feet. This fat pad is sensitive to touch and your child uses it to sense the world. Therefore, a lot of the time your child should be wearing either nothing or socks. Of course, when your child must be outside or during the winter, they will have to wear shoes, but try buying shoes with a soft and thin sole so the fat pad still has some connection to the ground. This is rather crucial for your child’s development.
Children’s bones are also a lot softer and more flexible than adults’ bones. This is one of the reasons why they can get their legs all the way up over their heads or suck on their big toe. You should therefore also possibly try to buy shoes in soft materials that do not strain your child’s movements. They must have the freedom to play, and a pair of stiff leather shoes is therefore not the way forward.
