The Importance of Foot Health in School-Aged Children

Jan 15, 2025

For Back to School this year, we've partnered with Tram Phan from Happifeet Podiatry to emphasise the importance of foot health in school-aged children and the potential risks associated with improper footwear.

Tram, the Senior Podiatrist and Director at Happifeet Podiatry, holds a Bachelor of Health Science (Honours). With over 20 years of experience in private practice, she specialises in ingrown toenail treatment and improving patients' comfort in walking and running.

Through this collaboration, Tram offers parents expert insights into why the correct school shoes are essential to ensure growing feet are supported and protected throughout the school year.

Did you know each human foot is made up of 26 bones? As a child, these bones are mostly cartilage. As the foot grows, that cartilage begins to form its final shape and starts to harden and become true bone. To put it simply, your child's foot is very mouldable and adaptable to whatever shoe shape you put their foot into.

If the shoes are too narrow or the wrong shape, your child's soft bones will mould into that shape. If the shoes are too stiff, the muscles will learn to develop differently as they adapt to that stiff shoe. Having the wrong shoes on your child's foot can lead to abnormal walking patterns such as tip-toe-walking, pigeon toe-walking and toe deformities.

Not every pair of feet is the same. Some will need extra depth and height in their shoes because they have a 'fleshy/chubby' foot, while others will need a shoe that is wider at the toes because their toes splay outwards. Some children have feet that 'roll-in' and collapse while some 'roll-out' and are prone to ankle sprains.

Overall, studies have shown that good quality footwear positively affects the running and walking gait of children. From my personal experience, I have found that most adult foot conditions are preventable in childhood. We treat many patients with chronic foot and ankle issues caused by injuries they had while they were at school. This is why it is best to give your child the best start in life with good quality shoes.

It's important to check their school shoes at the end of each term to ensure they aren't too small. Since children spend over 1,500 hours a year in their school shoes, we recommend replacing them once the distance from their longest toe to the end of the insole/shoe is 5mm. This is so that when their feet slide forwards during walking and running, their toes don't buckle and curl up. The cost of replacing school shoes regularly is much less than dealing with lifelong problems in adulthood that stem from poor-fitting school shoes.

As podiatrists, we mainly look at 3 things when it comes to footwear fittings:

1. Does the footwear match the activity that it is intended for?

2. Does the footwear fit their feet correctly in terms of length, depth and width?

3. Does the footwear provide adequate support for their foot structure? (That is, do their shoes control how much they 'roll-in' or 'roll-out'?)

Our team at Happifeet Podiatry has been referring our school-aged patients to buy Ascent school shoes for many years. They are the only brand we have seen that consistently provides the proper fit, support and comfort for growing feet.