Children's feet are not like small adult feet! They are wonderfully soft because the foot bones are still slowly developing and children's feet are much more flexible than their parents' feet. But even the slightest pressure - caused by shoes that don't fit, for example - or too little room for movement - can potentially cause damage.

The human foot takes approximately 18 years to fully develop. Of course, it grows fastest in the beginning. From the first to the third year of life, a child's foot grows an average of 1,5 millimeters per month. From the third to the sixth then only 0,8 millimeters. Children's wonderful little feet can develop best when they are allowed to romp around barefoot. Unfortunately, in our latitudes it is often too cold, too dirty or too dangerous for the little ones.

Since children's feet grow so quickly, you parents should check the fit of your children's shoes every 3-4 months. You can do this easily with our POLOLO slippers by turning them over and looking at where the big toe print is. Almost over the seam? Then move on to the next size! We have also always developed removable soles for our MINI and MAXI street shoes - as far as this was possible for the respective style. On the one hand, you can easily replace a sole (e.g. add a wool sole for the winter) and you can use it to measure the foot length and fit very well. Is the imprint of the big toe already worryingly far forward? Yay, then your child has grown again: congratulations!

Children are constantly in action. The whole muscles are always in motion and that's great. Therefore, let your children run around barefoot as much as possible or in slippers such as the POLOLO barefoot models with leather soles, which do not have a solid sole and nestle around children's feet like a second skin, warming and protecting them.

For outdoor shoes, make sure that the foot has enough space inside the shoe. To ensure there is enough room for growth, a shoe should be at least 1 cm longer than the foot. Even small feet are subject to daily fluctuations. Therefore, the purchase of baby shoes or children's shoes should - if possible - be postponed until the afternoon. You can check whether the shoe roughly fits or not with a thumb test or, in our case, with the removable sole. For a child who can already stand, this should definitely be done while standing. The thumb must then fit between the longest toe (which doesn't have to be the big toe) and the toe of the shoe.

We don't use prefabricated footbeds for our shoes because feet don't have to go to bed! They are healthy and can be exercised and moved. No muscles need support; rather, every foot and every child and every running (learning) style is different. For this reason alone, we avoid prefabricated orthopedic footbeds.

Fortunately, most children are born with healthy, perfect little feet. Support your child so that they stick with it!