Understanding children’s awareness of fashion, we provide a variety of stylish extra depth children’s medical shoes in colors that will blend in with the other kid’s shoes into a classroom setting and still comply with the podiatrist’s recommendations. Your child won’t feel like he or she uncomfortably stands out in a crowd and is free to run around the playground or walk around the classroom with ease.

Children’s Orthopedic Running & Hiking Shoes

Because of the greater flexibility in a kid’s foot compared to an adult’s foot, childhood foot problems are less common than adult foot problems. That doesn’t mean that foot pain and even foot injuries don’t still occur when a child routinely plays hard in overly flimsy shoes. When it comes to protecting your young athlete from foot injuries, prevention is particularly important. Children may not be mature enough to realize that a foot condition is developing until the pain can no longer be ignored and thus may not receive a diagnosis as early as they should. Avoiding any serious or chronic foot pain during childhood will have an important impact on your child’s foot development as he or she grows into an adult.

Just like adults, active kids need shoes that provide adequate arch support and heel support and absorb shock to reduce stress to joints while they exercise. The major difference between a children’s therapeutic running shoe and an adult’s therapeutic running shoe is that a kid’s running shoe tends to provide less motion control to allow little feet to continue to grow and develop without unnatural hindrance. Brooks Kid’s Running Shoes are fashionable, sturdy, and podiatrist approved to prevent running injuries in children and youth.

Children’s AFO & KAFO Shoes

Many of our shoes, including our Answer2 Kid’s Shoes and Keeping Pace Kid’s Shoes, are designed specifically to meet the needs of kids who wear AFO and KAFO braces. We also carry Pedors Children’s Stretchable Shoes, designed not only for AFO accommodation, but also to meet the needs of children with E.B. who often develop chronic foot wounds.

An AFO (ankle-foot orthosis) is a general term for any orthopedic brace worn over the foot and ankle. A KAFO is an ankle-foot orthosis that extends up to the knee. Take note: Most children’s orthopedic shoes that accommodate AFOs also accommodate KAFOs.

To accommodate a child’s AFO, a kid’s shoe should be a width larger than the child would need if he or she were not wearing a brace. For most children that means wearing a wide width kid’s shoe. If a children’s shoe is going to fit properly over an AFO it should also have extra depth. Dual removable insoles are another useful feature because they allow the shoe’s depth to be altered to adjust for leg length discrepancy.

Another factor to consider when selecting an AFO shoe for your child is quality of construction. The rigid structure of an AFO will wear a hole through the toe box of an overly flimsy shoe within a matter of weeks. An effective AFO shoe should be made from durable, high quality materials. This is both to provide adequate support and to ensure that you only have to buy a new pair when the child grows out of the shoe and not before.