 | If you're thinking of purchasing your young daughter high heels similar to those recently worn by Suri Cruise,
three-year-old daughter of mega-stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes,
think again.. Yes, it's cute to see your daughter or granddaughter
playing "dress up" in Mom's high-heeled pumps or dress shoes. But
wearing high heel shoes while wearing adult clothes and pretending to be
a princess or a bride and traipsing around the house is one thing,
because little girls playing dress up rarely wear the too-large shoes
for longer than an hour or so. But wearing high heels -- even if the
shoes are the child's size -- could possibly hurt the youngster.
suri cruise fashion Adults who wear high heels run the risk of shortening their Achilles tendons (the tough, fibrous tissue that connects the heel to the calf). The results could be worse for a child; a three-year-old girl, one who has many years of growth ahead of her, could shorten the growth of her Achilles tendon while her bones and other muscles grow. Children's bones and tendons need to grow at the same time for best results. In addition, just as can happen with adults, those high heels helped little Suri trip in the rain. She ran the risk of twisting and spraining her ankle. My advice: leave the high heels for the teen years. I recommend girls not wear heels until at least age 12, and even then the heel should be no higher than an inch in height. In the meantime, if your little one wants to play dress up in high heels, I recommend you purchase shoes that fit her, rather than allowing her to wear a grown woman's high heeled shoes for hours on end. And never let her wear shoes that are too large for her outside. Take her to a store that specializes in children's shoes. Look for heels that are no higher than half an inch (1/2) in height. Make sure she walks around in the heels a bit in the store. If she's tripping on them, try on another pair to see if the size or style is causing her problems. Once home, if she is still tripping in the shoes, tell her she needs to practice and limit her wearing the shoes for 15 minutes at a time. Tell her that once she stops tripping, once she can keep her balance, she may wear the heels for longer periods of time. Still, I do not recommend you let your little girl wear her heels around town while you run errands or allow her to wear them to school. And do your best to limit the amount of time she wears heels to no more than a very few hours a week (fewer than five). |
