How do you guess shoe size for summer?

[AbbieF]

DD just started walking and her first pair of "real" shoes are a 4 wide. As it has been mentioned in other posts, if I wait til she needs sandals there won't be any left. So, how do I guestimate her size for summer. The sales person at Stride Rite said typically they outgrow the first pair in about 3 months. So as a rule, do you go up a half size or a whole size? Her feet are the one small part on her body :)
Also, any good suggestions for shoes, besides the Stride Rite Guppy? She already takes off her diaper, so I think velcro could be a problem.

Abbie
Mom to Maddie 4/04

[AvasMama]

Not sure about sizing, but FWIW Ava went from a 3 to a 5 in about 3 months. She kind of skipped 4, though she was wearing mostly Robeez at that time so maybe I just missed it :)

The non-velcro sandals we have are the SR Lou Lou II style -- cute, basic white closed-toe. I also like the Juliet style, but the toe is more open on those. I just posted looking for pink/red options with buckles, so you can see what was recommended to me in that post. I ended up going with the pink Umis.

Robyn & Ava

[malie]

Luke went up a half size between his first pair of shoes and his second but we didn't actualy get him his first pair until he had been walking 4 months (and only because it was getting to be winter)

We used Robeez last summer for his first summer walking (he started walking a bit this time last year but was really walking by June which was his first birthday).

Honestly barefoot is still better but if you just got to have sandals :) I would probably go a half size up from what she just got. But I guess that also depends on what she was measuring to start with. Obviously her first pair are 4's but was she measuring close to 3 1/2 or closer to 4 or do you know?

[dules]

I just got the Lou Lous because they are so cute on Ava. You should know that they have rhinestones on them, though. I'm not so sure I'm going to keep them because of that (it's cute, just NMS). SR doesn't mention it in their description and it's hard to see in the pics unless you know what they are.

Best,
Mary

[kransden]

Your safest bet is buying larger shoes from a store that takes returns with your receipt like Payless. Last year dd started as a 5 and finished as a 6. So we had to buy 3 pairs of sandals. I wouldn't worry to much about the velcro. It is very exciting at first then they ignore it.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02