The benefits of letting your toddler go barefoot

As parents we can feel guilty when our kids run around barefoot

Yet don't feel bad about the days you just can't get your little ones to sit still long enough to lace them up, there are some benefits to walking barefoot - of course when it's safe.

It builds strength

One major benefit of allowing a child to go barefoot is that it strengthens the feet and lower legs, making your kid less likely to become injured.

The feet are full of nerves and for this reason they keep us safe, helping us to be more careful, and better able to adapt to the ground beneath us.

It also enhances proprioception, which is  is the sense that lets us perceive the location, movement, and action of parts of the body.

In other words, going barefoot helps a child develop body awareness. 

It helps develop a healthy gait

Gait is the pattern in which you take steps.

If you have a poor gait it can cause things like limping, shuffling and trouble with coordination which in turn can lead to injury.

Podiatrist Dr. William A. Rossi said it all when he wrote, "It took 4 million years to develop our unique human foot and our consequent distinctive form of gait.

"In only a few thousand years, and with one carelessly designed instrument, our shoes, we have warped the pure anatomical form of human gait, obstructing its engineering efficiency, afflicting it with strains and stresses and denying it its natural grace of form and ease of movement head to foot."

Despite extensive findings, it is still not recommend you or your child should walk barefoot outside.

It's good for your senses

Walking barefoot can provide your child with new and exciting sensory experiences.

The world is tactile and the experience of feeling warm sand and soft grass under their feet can be fun for your child.

All of this is literally at their feet if your toddler decides today is a no shoe day.

It could even be good for you to take your shoes off and edxperience the world in this way.

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