Conflicting advice re: hard shoes

[CEVmommy]

My daughter is 15 months old. She has motor, communication, and cognitive delays with no diagnosis yet. She sees a physical therapist and a developmental therapist.

She is cruising but not walking, but is almost always on her toes. She has weak core muscles and poor balance. Our first physical therapist told me not to put shoes on her at all, that if I had to put shoes on her they should be soft shoes (like Robeez), and that barefoot is definitely best. She said that while hard shoes might allow my daughter to walk better while in them in the short-term, that they would actually make it harder for her to develop the right muscles properly in the long-term because they do a lot of the work for her. She said to wait until my daughter was able walk well before using hard shoes. Since she told me that (over 2 months ago), my daughter has only been barefoot (hey, it's summer!).

Now, yesterday, her developmental therapist saw her and said that she strongly recommends putting hard shoes on her to help her learn to walk with flat feet. This is completely the opposite of what the other therapist said! So now I don't know what to do with this information, but I tend to favor the physical therapist over the developmental therapist since that is her specialty.

What have you guys heard about hard shoes for pre-walkers?

[confustication]

My 2 year old is almost exclusively on his toes. Our OT suggested that we engage him in jumping/bouncing when we see him on his toes to see if that will help him bring them down. The PT advocates a massage several times a day.

Both advocate lots of barefoot time (and he doesn't really tolerate hard soled shoes anyway, so I've been pretty clear that they aren't really an option here until he is able to tolerate them better.)

I don't like to put hard soled shoes on kids who are not walking well as a general rule- as I shop for fall shoes for my 2 yo I am looking to something a little more solid, but not a hard sole... for now, he has a pair of sandals that work really well and is barefoot the rest of the time.

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by CEVmommy

She said that while hard shoes might allow my daughter to walk better while in them in the short-term, that they would actually make it harder for her to develop the right muscles properly in the long-term because they do a lot of the work for her.

....
Now, yesterday, her developmental therapist saw her and said that she strongly recommends putting hard shoes on her to help her learn to walk with flat feet.

...
This is completely the opposite of what the other therapist said!

I don't think they are saying the opposite. There are pros and cons either way and I think they agree on the pros and cons, differing only in which is really more important.

The question seems to be: which is more important, getting her to walk flat footed NOW or wait and see if by being barefoot she eventually catches on to doing on her own. To put it another way, is it better to let her wear shoes that do some of the work for her, or give her more time to figure out how to do all the work on her own.

Is it possible that the older your DD gets, the answer changes? My DD is a lot older so some of this development is fuzzy for me, but isn't 15 months about the cut off for normal walking and a child being considered delayed in walking? Could that be what is making the difference?

Did you tell the developmental therapist that you can been told the opposite and ask why she said something different? May be she could explain the two answers and say why at this moment in time, her advice is what it is.

My DD was also a toe walker and didn't walk until 16 months, and want to send you a big hug. She will eventually walk, and it sounds like she is very, very close!!!!