Neus Moya illustrates on Instagram parents who are looking for advice when buying shoes for their little ones.
Rosanna Carceller
Neus Moya studied nursing, but through her father, a doctor, she came to podiatry. "When I discovered pediatric podiatry, I fell in love. I've been treating children in my clinic for seven years now. I realized the lack of information parents have about choosing the right footwear, and I was very surprised. That's why I decided to open a clinic." Instagram profile", he says. A profile full of footwear advice and reviews of shoe and sneaker models and brands, which now has nearly 240,000 followers.
On March 19, 2020, in the midst of lockdown, Moya published her first post. “That situation catapulted me because I had more time to prepare content, and people had time to consume it,” she says. At first, it was strange to find a podiatrist doing live broadcasts about footwear. “People started to get used to it; they saw that common sense applied to footwear exists.”
His explanations are forceful when he talks about the errors Parents often have to worry about buying shoes for their little ones. "The shoe shouldn't support the child's foot at any point, nor should it straighten it!" Children's feet are soft and elastic; they often fall inward (physiological valgus). When they gain muscle mass, the foot straightens, around age six or seven. "If you go to the pediatrician with your baby and they lack neck tone... What would you think if they told you to put a neck brace on them?" she asks.
"The foot allows for all of this: straightening it when it's physiologically dropped. This dropped foot, in particular, needs movement to mature; the muscles must be trained. If we support this foot, we condemn it to a lifelong muscular weakness," says the podiatrist.
Moya makes a surprising observation: until 9 or 10 months, babies have twice as much exteroceptive sensitivity (reception of stimuli through the skin) in their feet as in their hands. "Covering the feet with socks or shoes causes compression in an immature foot, and you're also blocking the baby's connection with the environment. That's where they perceive the most information!"
This explains why many babies constantly take off their socks and shoes. "They don't do it to be annoying, it's for survival." At this stage, "they don't need shoes until they need protection from the street. When they walk, they don't need shoes."
When they are small they prefer sports shoes
That is, shoes should only be given to a child when they are walking on their own. "They are considered to be walking on their own if, from the moment they are released from the grip, they take ten steps unaided. The first few months of walking, if we can spend it in socks, all the better, as long as there are no risks. For example, if we go to a park with a bar where a glass might have broken, we put shoes on; or when the street is boiling hot. That is, in uncontrolled environments."
Wearing clogs all day is not advisable, even in summer.
Boys and girls run around squares and parks in summer wearing rubber clogs. Is it appropriate? “This is a shoe for specific activities: going to the pool, taking a short walk to the beach… Wearing clogs all day isn't advisable. They have a super-thick sole, a lot of drop (almost 8 mm), and no adjustment. It's not a shoe for children to wear all day at preschool or school.”
And flip-flops? “A study has shown that they don't affect the flexor muscles (which pick up the foot) as much as previously thought, but they do lead to many falls and muscle strains that are difficult to recover from. This was seen in adults, but in children, they're more dangerous because their movements are more erratic. For me, based on this factor alone, they should be ruled out.”
More money doesn't always mean better
Inheriting shoes isn't the best idea. "Everyone knows their own reality, and some are very harsh. But if you can avoid inheriting shoes, all the better. The person who wore the shoe first has left their mark on it, and when the second child wears them, we're doing them a disservice. If the shoe has been worn once or twice, it can logically be inherited. But if it's been worn for a month, it shouldn't be inherited again."
This specialist confirms what popular wisdom says: more expensive shoes aren't always better quality. "You may be paying for the brand, the design... The more expensive ones usually have a box sole, which rises up the side, and are usually more durable. But they don't necessarily have to be better," says Moya.
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