Whilst raising your child, you will soon find yourself going through shoes at a rate you’ve never experienced before. More often than not, you will find that it’s not the shoes that have worn down, but your child who has grown significantly in their first few years of development. It is important to note that every child develops at their own individual rate. However, it is very rare for shoes to last more than a year, or shoes to last less than two months.
In general, the rate at which your kids need new shoes will depend entirely on their age range. Whilst some kids grow at a faster rate than others, there are general rules in terms of shoes for children of certain age groups.
How fast do feet grow?
During your child’s first three years of development, their feet will grow faster than any other part of their body and at a rate faster than any other time in their life. In general, they should need their shoes replaced every three to 4 months. As a result, you will be making a trip to the shoe shop around 3 times a year! In this period, your child’s feet will grow an average of around half a size to a whole size every four months or so.
At the ages of four to six, your child’s foot growth will slow down a little. However, they will still be rapidly growing. In general, they will need their shoes replaced every four to five months, meaning that you will have to take two to three trips to the store every year. Healthy growth in this time period will be around half a size to a size difference every four to five months.
Between the ages of seven to ten, your child will need new shoes every five months. Whilst development, in general, does begin to slow, your child’s feet will grow half a shoe size to a whole size around every six months. This ensures that you will be making at least two trips to the shoe store every year!
Around the ages of 11 to 14, your child will begin to develop at a steady rate, in which they will need new shoes around every 6 months, growing about half a shoe size to a whole size in this time period. During this period, it is also more common for boys to grow in shoe size at a faster rate than girls, which could mean more trips to the shoe store.
When do feet stop growing?
By ages 14 plus after your child has gone through puberty, it is likely that their will feet will stop growing. Whilst it still may be possible for them to grow more, it’s unlikely. Between ages 18 and 20 there should be no more growth.
So, there you have it, the general amount that you will have to buy shoes for your kids. Whilst this may seem excessive, it is something that many parents simply have to go through and with kid’s shoes often being much cheaper than adults, you may even begin to enjoy your trips to the shoe shop! We hope our article helped and wish you all the best on your shoe shopping trips!
How to protect shoes from staining?
Another reason why children’s shoes commonly need replacing is when they get damaged. This could be physical damage that will show itself as a hole that allows water in, and this is a sure sign that they will need replacing.
The other is aesthetically. There is nothing worse than when all of the nice clean white parts of the shoe go dark, scuffed and in general have discolourations. The best way to prevent this from happening is by keeping an eye on your child more. If you notice your child doing something that could cause damage to their shoes, tell them about it, and make it known. Tell them that they will ruin their shoes, try to teach them some responsibility regarding care for their possessions. As far as prevention goes, it is still inevitably going to happen. What I like to do every Sunday is care for my shoes, I use a soft bristle brush and scrub dirt and debris off from the outside.
For the whites of the shoe, I use a cloth with water and a brilliant white bio washing powder and rub it until it turns back to white. Doing this often will reduce the chances of staining and can help your child keep their shoes for longer without needing to replace them.
Some shoes are not very good in the rain and light colours are likely to get stained, which is why you could buy one of those sprays that they recommend in the shops because they may be able to stop your shoes from getting wet by providing an invisible waterproof layer that provides protection from staining. Whilst some people feel that these sprays work very well, others feel like they have been let down.
