Toddler with Flat Feet – The Best Shoes for Toddlers with Flat Feet

Has your toddler been diagnosed with flat feet by your physical or occupational therapist and they recommend fitting your toddler in a pair of supportive shoes? Maybe you noticed something wrong with your toddler’s feet and want to be proactive. Shoes for a toddler with flat feet should provide supportive outsoles, firm heel counters, and straight lasts to help improve foot posture, gait, and stability. Your toddler’s feet are an essential part of their body, but this part of the body is usually underestimated by most parents.

Does the Image Below Look Familiar?

Below you can find an image of a toddler with flat feet standing barefoot. Does this picture look familiar to you?

Providing your children with a pair of shoes with supportive outsoles will allow them to walk and run straighter, and prevent them from developing foot issues.

When parents come to the shoe store with children who have flat feet, I always explain to them that the first step is to find shoes that provide the correct amount of arch and ankle support. Something so simple as providing your child with the correct type of shoe will have a tremendous difference in the way your child walks and runs. Let me prove it to you…

What a Difference These Shoes Can Make!

Let’s take a look at a picture of a toddler with flat feet standing barefoot. Do you notice how the toddler’s feet are collapsing and turning inwards?

Before Image

Now let’s take a look at a picture of the same toddler wearing a pair of supportive shoes that I recommend. Do you notice how straighter the feet are?

After Image

Please keep in mind that there will be cases where a pair of supportive shoes will not be enough to correct your toddler’s posture, and that’s when you will need to fit an orthotic inside the shoes (for extra support).

Caring for Your Toddler’s Feet – Keep an Eye on Their Feet!

Parents should take care of their toddler’s feet as they are a susceptible and soft part of their bodies. Our feet are regarded as the foundation for our entire body, and parents should start monitoring their kids’ feet right from when they start taking their first steps. Providing your children with the correct type of shoes is the first step in keeping their feet healthy.

What Are the Best Types of Shoes for a Flat-Footed Toddler?

It’s important to choose the correct type of shoes for your toddler, which involves a substantial and supportive outsole, a firm heel counter, straight lasts, and lightweight materials.

1️⃣ Substantial and Supportive Outsoles: This feature will help improve foot posture and reduce the impact that your toddler’s feet and legs take every time they become in contact with the ground.

2️⃣ Straight Lasts: This feature helps prevent the forefoot from pushing out.

3️⃣ Firm Heel Counters: This will protect and support your toddler’s ankles as well as strengthen and straighten them. If the shoe that you provide for your child has a heel counter that is too soft and flimsy, your child won’t get any of the benefits that the shoe has to offer.

As I mentioned before, the heel counter of the shoes can be firm or soft. Always make sure that you press on the heel counter of your kids’ shoes before you buy them. Let me show you the difference between a shoe with a soft heel counter versus a shoe with a firm heel counter:

4️⃣ Lightweight and Flexible: While the shoes must be supportive, they also need to be lightweight and flexible at the same time to prevent your toddler’s feet and legs from easily getting tired.

If you’re pressed for time, you can go straight to the selection of the best toddler shoes for flat feet.

The Advantages of Supportive Shoes – Keep Your Toddler’s Feet Healthy!

We all know how kids tend to be very active and they like to run and play rough; that is the reason why the shoes that you provide for your children must have the correct type of support and durability.

The best type of shoes for your kids are those that will fit the shape of their feet perfectly, provide arch support and a firm heel counter for ankle support and are also flexible enough to allow free movement of the feet. These are the must-have features your kids’ shoes must provide to keep their feet healthy.

The advantages of providing your child with a pair of shoes that provide all of the features mentioned above are:

➡️ Promote healthy foot development

➡️ Improve your kids’ posture

➡️ Provide stability

➡️ Minimize the impact on your kids’ feet when they hit the ground

➡️ Prevent foot injuries

Now that you know the key role that good supportive shoes provide for a toddler with flat feet, below you can find a selection of the most supportive and better made shoes for toddlers with flat feet. Disclosure: Some links in this post may be affiliate links and we may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) when you click our links and make purchases.

The Best Shoes for Toddlers with Flat Feet to Help Improve Foot Posture and Stability

Keep in mind that if your toddler is pronating severely, you should go for the shoe styles that come with shoelaces, since they provide more support and more stability for the feet. All of these shoe styles will be able to accommodate an orthotic for extra support.

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The Importance of Getting the Correct Shoe Size – Get It Right!

When it comes to providing their children with the correct shoe size, parents tend to make the mistake of leaving extra room in the front of the shoe thinking that their kids will be able to wear the shoes for a longer period of time. A certain amount of growing room is okay, the issue comes when parents decide to leave extra growing room and end up compromising their children’s stability.

Getting the correct shoe size for your child goes far beyond just getting the correct shoe length, since getting the correct shoe width size has the same importance as getting the correct length size.

How to Retrieve Your Child’s Exact Foot Length and Shape

I always recommend parents take their children to their local shoe store, where a shoe fitter can properly measure their feet and find shoes that fit. However, several parents don’t have a local shoe store in their area that they trust, and they must buy their shoes online.

There is nothing wrong with this, but you must make sure you are providing your child with the correct type of shoes and the correct shoe size.

The Best Orthotics for Toddlers – Help Them Walk and Run Straighter!

Sometimes a pair of supportive shoes might not be enough to improve and correct the way your toddler walks. If you have tried a pair of supportive shoes for your toddler and he or she is still having foot pain or walking differently, you might want to try a pair of orthotics.

A pair of orthotics will help redistribute your toddler’s body weight, correct the abnormal placement of the foot, and make their gait balanced and efficient. Below you can find the most effective orthotics for toddlers with flat feet:

Is It Normal for Toddlers to Have Flat Feet?

It is a fact that most toddlers are flat-footed, but this doesn’t mean that this condition should be left untreated. Most medical professionals advise parents to be patient and just wait for their toddlers to develop an arch or to “outgrow” the condition, but the fact is that several of these toddlers don’t develop an arch, and parents end up regretting not having taken action sooner.

Flat feet can lead to foot and leg pain, muscle tightness, muscle weakness, or your toddler having trouble keeping up with peers in performing age-appropriate activities.

Get in Touch for a Personalized Suggestion

If you have any questions or need any further assistance, you can also contact me via email and I will get back to you as soon as possible. I am happy to help you find a different pair of shoes for your toddler so don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Supportive Shoes for Toddlers with Flat Feet – Watch Video!

I also created a video that demonstrates before and after images and videos of toddlers with flat feet wearing supportive shoes. You will also be able to visualize what features your toddler’s shoes should provide.

Do you have a toddler that is flat-footed? Have you found a particular shoe style that has helped him or her walk and run straighter? Please share your thoughts and experiences below so we can all benefit from them!