Shoe shopping for children

Good to know my 11yr old son is not a complete freak with his size 3 1/2 width C/D feet. I had AA feet when younger and I remember the pain of shoe shopping. But I am now in a total panic as school starts in a week and we only have the old scabby, too small, last year's shoes. Help. John Lewis have a pathetic selection for narrow feet and had few choices in Startrite range though they are a narrower fit. We need black, leather shoes - central London. Anyone out there know a place?

I too have to agree with all the mums having this problem. We keep being told about our kids foot care and yet when they get older the width fittings just aren't there. I've jst read that feet don't stop growing and changing until 18yrs of age so alot of damage is caused when children reach their teens as its harder to get the correct width fittings. It's so upsetting to care so much when a child's foot is smaller only to find you are unable to continue when they grow bigger. Good school shoes aren't cheap so it would be good if shoe shops took our money and gave us good choise of width fittings for our kids with larger sizes

I am with Lucy on this one for the last eleven years I too have suffered in finding suitable shoes for my son he is a e width fitting and we do not have a choice when we visit either john lewis or clarks. I went to the shops last week in an attempt to purchase his school shoes first stop was Clarkes at kingston retail park milton keynes they offered no size 5 E width shoes the next stop was John lewis and they only had two pairs both of which looked dreadful and my son said no thanks as he said he did not want another pair of shoes he did not choose. Next stop was Klincards and there two pairs little choice there and again they were not nice I finally asked to look at a pair of kickers and again I had one choice I purchased these but the growing room is not the spec they usually use but what am I to do other go out of town which then puts added expense on a already expensive task. Fifty pound plus for a pair of childrens shoes is rather a lot especially when there is not a choice. These specialist shoe companies should be able to do better in the year 2010. I suggest they do better research or ask for customer feedback through the supplier/ shoe retailers

I am so relieved that I am not the only one, but why are there so many of us in the same boat?! My 12 year old son has just been measured as a 6.5F in Clarks, yet they seem unable to supply a pair of trainers that are narrow enough to fit him properly. The first store we tried had just one pair of traditional school shoes in his size and no trainers at all. No luck at the second either. I fared only slightly better buying shoes and trainers in a 2.5F for my younger son. I don't know where to go next for narrow trainers for my eldest son...

I can completely sympathise with everyone here. My daughter is 13 and an adult size 6.5 but a C/D width. We traul the shops every summer holiday to find shoes to fit but even on the rare occasion when the width fits, the gap between her foot and the top of the shoe is huge. We usually end up with dolly shoes from New Look. But now she has moved schools and is not allowed to wear them. Help, I don't know what we will do this year??

I know exactly what you are talking about! I have spent 2 hours on-line shopping for cute narrow dress shoes that don't have velcro to ruin her tights, the shiny generic leather look, or heels! Still no luck ;(

Thanks for the web link to Shoes for Kids Jeremy (09-Jun-2010 23:18). Had a look, but unfortunately none in width D! We bought my grand-daughter's first pair today - but the only size D we could find was Startrite in colour black, so had to buy them. A lot of you seem to have bad luck with Clarks. I live in Southampton and all our local Clarks shops are very, very helpful. I've just spent a long time on the internet looking for D width - but so far have only found Startrite!

I went to start rite today my son is a c fitting which is imposible to find but start rite tried to give me a pair of black trainers when I had asked for school shoes

I hate going to Clarks, too! My daughter is an H fitting, but with a very high instep, so even in the H fit, the velcro doesn't reach over all the way- so grass and hair gets caught alot. Also, my MIL took my daughter there to get some sandals. I took one look and could see they were no good-her feet were totally hanging over the "plate". Of course I took them back and discovered that they only do sandals in an F! Instead of doing the right thing and saying that they were no good, they just wanted to make the sale.

I hate going to Clarks, too! My daughter is an H fitting, but with a very high instep, so even in the H fit, the velcro doesn't reach over all the way- so grass and hair gets caught alot. Also, my MIL took my daughter there to get some sandals. I took one look and could see they were no good-her feet were totally hanging over the "plate". Of course I took them back and discovered that they only do sandals in an F! Instead of doing the right thing and saying that they were no good, they just wanted to make the sale.

I have had all sorts of measurements at Clarks! We run a bit of an experiment were we visited 2 different Clarks shoe shops and got a different size in each. One was a 3G and the other 3.5 H!

I too had a problem the last time I went to a shoe shop.

Purchased a pair of tortoise shell shoes. It took me four hours to walk from the shop. Ba-Boom-Tish.