Baby feet development

Babies feet grow extremely fast. By the time they are a year old, their feet will be almost half the size of their adult feet!

They will not have any formed bones in their feet for at least 6 months. Instead, babies are born with soft, flexible cartilage. The cartilage fuses together and hardens to form their bones. All 25 bones will be fully formed around 18 years of age.

A baby’s foot also has no arch. Instead, they have a solid little pad of fat in the middle of their feet, in time the fat disappears and the arch starts to takes shape. By 2 or 3 years old they will have fully formed arches.

It’s important that your baby’s feet are allowed to grow naturally. When your child starts to walk, shoes should only be used when protection from the ground is needed. Allowing children to go barefoot or wearing very soft shoes helps their feet to develop correctly and assists in strengthening their muscles.