What do you think of baby Nikes?

[tny915]

DH keeps taking dd out on little shopping trips to buy her cute stuff. I do think it's adorable that dh is suddenly into dressing her in little outfits, but he's not that cost-conscious and he doesn't do much research.

Anyway, he bought her a pair of $40 Nike Shox the other day. The sales associate sized her feet by holding up the shoes against her Robeez. So aside from the fact that these shoes may be the wrong size and that I feel bad rejecting dh's choices, can you share your opinions on whether we should keep these shoes? Does anyone know if Nike makes good shoes for baby feet? DD's not walking yet, but will in the next month or so.

[Jeanne]

I don't know if they are good for a baby, but can tell you that I bought Charlotte a canvas pair last year that fell apart inside of a month.

[deliasmommy]

It's great to know another daddy loves to shop for his daughter. My husband thinks *everything* (including the questionable-color-combination lavendar multi-color boots from Preschoolians) are sooo cute. We'd go bankrupt in a month if I let him buy everything! Anyway, my daughter's first sneakers were Nike. Size four wide, and they didn't measure her at all. Just took my word on the fact that she might take a four. In terms of size, I found Nike to run similarly to Stride Rite sneakers, which for my duaghter ran smaller through the instep than the Stride Rite First Walkers. So for fit, you could probably have her measured at a place by you that sells kids shoes and know if the size that he got fit - you wouldn't even need to bring it up with him :) In terms of the shoes themselves, I think they're overpriced 'cause they look like big kid Nikes, and in the smaller sizes (toddler 4, 5, 5.5) I found that pretty much anything I bought her was way more flexible. My DD got really upset from having the stiff shoe on her foot, and refused anything but Robeez - thankfully we found Preschoolians and have now slowly worked our way into a major shoe fixation with all types of shoes and boots!

[gour0]

For that kind of money, I would buy Preschoolians. YOu can get 20 % off right now through the coop, too. If she isn't walking, she should definitely stick to soft soles. Are the Nikes soft or hard? If they're soft and you really don't want to hurt his feelings, I would say keep them. But, if they're hard, I would return them.

[kransden]

DH bought dd the cute white leather ones with the pink swoosh. Because she did so much crawling in the shoes, she scraped the stitching off the top making the shoes fall apart. (She was a new walker) I was not pleased! The preschoolians are a better choice for that age IMHO. In their defense, they were a lot lighter and more flexible than anything else I found before the preschoolians. I just hated wasting the $30.00. On the other hand she did outgrown them fairly quicky and dh was so proud of himself for finding them.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

[tny915]

Thanks everyone for the tips!

Can you also educate me on when our little ones move from the soft soles to the hard shoes? Is there a developmental reason for switching from soft to hard? Or are the hard soles just so they can walk around outside and protect their feet? The Nikes are definitely hard-soled, so I may try exchanging them for a much larger size to spare dh's feelings.

[Melanie]

Personally, I feel they should remain in soft shoes as long and as much as possible (with bare feet of course being better, weather permitting). It will allow them to develop a natural gait not one based upon clunky inflexible shoes.

Ds wore his soft soles as long as possible only wear thicker-soled shoes (STILL FLEXIBLE) when we were going to be some place with a pebbly or sharp surface that we thought he would want to walk on, or if it was going to be wet. Once he dropped teh baby walk/waddle and we were sure he was walking fine, we started putting him in the harder (still flexible) soles more often.

HTH
Melanie

[gour0]

I've seen the barefoot is best philosphy recommended for as long as three years. I cannot imagine letting him walk in a hard soled shoe. We recieved a pair of Air Jordans sz 2 from one of dh's coworkers. I let him wear them exactly 20 minutes for a visit to the office before he could walk. Then, they were put away for good. I just ordered two more pairs of preschoolians in sizes 22 and 23. I will probably order 24 and 25 when the time gets closer.

[AngelaS]

Unless she's going to wear them all day every day, while walking miles and miles, I would probably keep them. They're adorable, they're warm and they're not going to hurt her as long as they fit okay. 90% of the time, my kids go barefoot at home and the other 10% when we're out and about, we wear whichever shoes go best w/the outfit, as long as they are comfy.

That's my 2 cents.... :D