It is a very common sight now to see children’s high heeled foot wears displayed in shops and in the open markets. On websites also, children, especially girl’s, high heeled shoes are advertised.
Just as adult ladies have wedge, stilettos etcetera, young girls also have assorted shapes and designs in platforms, wedges, stilettos and pointed heeled foot wears.
In churches and other public places you can’t help but see gaily dressed young girls between the ages of 3-10years hanging onto their mother’s hand struggling to meet up with her walking pace or running around with their friends.
Is it appropriate for the kind of movement children spontaneously engage in like hopping, running, skipping? you may ask.
I personally adore well dressed girls. I appreciate parents that make out time to dress up their children, and fashion come out beautifully well in girls than boys who always dress up in boring trousers, shorts and tops. But for the lucky girls, there are hosts of things they can use to dress up and naturally girls like dressing up.
But even though we are all for fashion, not when it presents health risk. When I see these young adolescents in high heels ,treading and gently picking their steps, sometimes I wonder the wisdom in their parents, decking them up in heels until the experience I had about two weeks ago.
It was my seven-year-old daughter’s birthday. Being one that likes dressing up, I bought a golden wedge sandals by the popular designer, Michael Knorrs, to complement her dressing. I made her try the wedge sandals which has about two inches wedge at home to see how comfortably she will walk in them and I was satisfied with what I saw. Of course she was thrilled with her sandals and chatted happily.
The next day, she dressed up in her birthday attire and went to her school to celebrate with her friends. Meanwhile, she also had some dressy flat slippers which she was supposed to change into after the photo session with her friends. But apparently, she did not change into the flat slippers on time. She must have run around in school still wearing those wedges.
At the end of the day, she came back happy but by the next day, I noticed she was not quite walking as she used to walk. I just put it down to one of those their girlish plays.
However, by the second day and two days later, I knew something was wrong. She was walking with a very slight limp. I asked why and she said she had pains on her foot, especially on her heels. I massaged her with rub ointment while she cried out in pains. I probed further to find out if she had had a fall but that was not the case.
After the 3rd day, with a continuous application of rub and nerve and bone ointment, I took her to Igbobi Orthopaedic Hospital Lagos. Gently and professionally, the amiable Doctor, Charles Olu, asked questions. After a thorough medical examination, it dawned on us that the cause of the pains was from the wedge sandals.
Should our girls be allowed to wear high heeled shoes? What exactly do parents hope to achieve from such buys? Not surprisingly, most of the parents interviewed admitted to buying heeled foot wears for their young girls, especially to indulge the girls and follow fashion trends.
Mrs. Eno Essien, a mother of three girls between the ages of 6 and 10 years, says it depends on the height of the heels.
“My daughters beg me to buy them citing that their friends wear heeled shoes though I try to buy shoes with moderate heels for them.”
“My daughter who is four years old loves modelling at home in my high heels. She puts her tiny feet in my shoes and have fun walking around the house in them,” enthused Barrister YetundeOluwole.
On the type of foot wears she buys for her little girl, she said she buys both flat and shoes with medium heels, “though If I shop with her, she will insist on foot wears that are high and throw tantrums till I get them for her.”
For house-wife, Mrs. Nneka Alozie, who has two daughters who are three and seven years old, “It is my husband that buys the heeled shoes for them. I usually buy foot wears with low heels for my daughters but they prefer the ones their daddy buys for them.”
Another lady, Mrs. Comfort Ekelemu, who has a boutique at No. 2, line one in Alade Market Ikeja, said she encourages mothers to dress up their children sensibly. The woman who trades in children’s wears said the fact she is in that business does not mean she will encourage wrong doings.
A mother of five ladies, who is also a grandmother of about ten children, vehemently condemns mothers who buy high heeled shoes for their children. “The mothers buy it out of ignorance. What do they hope to achieve by that? The children should be made to pay attention to their school work and wear flat shoes which is more comfortable for them,” thunders Mrs. Cecilia Agbilibeazu who is in her seventies.
Continuing, she says: “The child can easily miss her steps in high heels and break her leg or twist her ankle, so why buy it for her?” She queries.
Mrs. Agbilibeazu regrets the way most parents are bringing up their children now, stressing that such actions will only lead them to moral bankruptcy in future.
A mother of three children who also has a children’s boutique on Toyin Road, Ikeja, says she does not see the reasons why girls should not be allowed to wear high foot wears if they can conveniently walk in them.
Berating people who are against young girls wearing heeled foot wears, she says, “I particularly have no bias against young girls wearing wedge because it is balanced.”
Asking her about the risk factor, she replies that “as far as I’m concerned, the risk involved is the same for adults, and will you say because of that, adults should stop wearing high heels?”
But an orthopaedic doctor, Dr. Charles Olu, says the woman is speaking purely out of ignorance. “From a medical point of view, there is specific concern with young girls wearing high heels and pointy toed shoes because their bones are more malleable and can be structurally deformed as they grow.”
Explaining, he says, “bone growth occurs from a cartilaginous precursor that becomes calcified and hardened. The softer growing bone can be deformed and misshapen by external forces such as high heels.”
In a telephone interview with Dr. Emmanuel Okagbua, of Orthopaedic Hospital Enugu, he warns parents to desist from buying high heeled shoes for growing young girls as “there is a significant risk to cause bone and joint deformations within the foot.
“Sure, heel height, duration of time spent in the heel and the frequency of wear are all contributing factors to developing high heel-associated foot problems, but the risks are clear.”
Speaking further, the orthopaedic doctor explains that “from a purely bone-related stand point, females reach skeletal maturity around age 14. This does not mean that this is the proper age for one to begin wearing high heels, nor am I indicating that high heel wearing is safe at all for young girls and adolescents.
“But parents should strongly consider avoiding shoe gears that can have a life-long impact on the foot prior to maturity of the foot. And remember, even after skeletal maturity, the risk of developing foot problems still exists.”
A top paediatric doctor at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital [LUTH], Dr Jacobs O. Ajayi, adding his own voice, warns that heels on shoes” artificially lift the child’s heel up, thus shortening the stretch in the calf muscles and tendons.
“The bones in the child’s feet need to grow in proper approximation to each other. Heels also put more pressure on the forefoot or the pad of the foot and on the toes.”
We have heard from the professionals. Besides these dangers though, what is the hidden message? Must a girl wear high heels in order to feel pretty? Does she need to pretend to be tall, as we all know she is a child who is still growing?
Parents, let’s let our kids be kids.
