Eyeball toddler's shoe size by looking at the insoles

Emily's smart shoe-shopping hack:

I've been having a hard time keeping up with the rapid growth of my toddler's feet. It's so hard to get him to stand still long enough to check the shoe size with the "toe squish" method. Recently after a romp in the creek his shoes were soaking wet, I pulled the insoles out to let the shoes dry. That's when the lightbulb went off: hold the insole up to the bottom of his socked (or bare) foot for a good read on where he is in his current pair. Works like a charm!

My kids are WAY past the toddler stage and I still have a hard time figuring out their shoe sizes. Even after using one of those size measuring things at the store. Shoe sizes vary so widely across brands.

One thing that has helped -- I keep a note tucked into my wallet with my kids' most recent shoe and clothing sizes in case I run into good sale prices when they're not with me (or, more likely, are unwilling to try stuff on). High tech option: keep this info on a note in your cell phone.

Related: Attach return addresses to your baby's shoes

Comments

[Heather]

My grandmother always had us stand on a piece of paper so she could trace an outline of our feet - she used those tracings to buy us shoes for Christmas and birthdays. It worked, and it was always a fun part of visiting Grandma before the holidays.

[Darryl Papa-sensei]

That was what I thought about, Heather. Today maybe wrnagle the darlings to stand on a ruler and take a cameraphone picture. (Or just the insoles.) Then you can have it with you all the time, and can tell how big they should be by looking at the length on the ruler.

But Grandma's idea works fine too ;)

[Derrick]

I take the opposite shoe, and size up the sole against the bottom of the opposite foot (Right shoe bottom on left foot, left shoe bottom on right foot). Leave a bit of room for the shoe upper.

My toddler loves having the shoe on 'upside down!' for checking the size, and my 5yr old doesn't mind me grabbing a foot to test with when she's tired of trying on every pair.

[Andrea]

Great!

[Chris Thompson]

This is a great idea. Sometimes if my wife is shopping for shoes I'll just get the kids to stand on paper and mark the outline of their feet as a game ... then she takes the paper with her.

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