A recent study on children’s shoe sizing conducted in Sweden finds that nearly 70-percent of kids are wearing shoes that are too small or too big for them. In large part, this is due to the finding that the size listed on shoes by the manufacturer is rarely the true size. In nearly all cases, the manufacturers overstate the size.

“The most striking finding of our study was that the majority of outdoor shoes and slippers of children were too small,” senior author Dr. Norman Espinosa, from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, told Reuters Health. “Interestingly, the shoe sizes given by the manufacturers almost never matched with the true sizes measured by us.”

According to the report, just 7.6% of outdoor shoes had a correctly stated shoe size. For 90.2% of shoes, the actual size was smaller than that listed by the manufacturer. For slippers: only 2.4% had a correctly stated size and 97.6% were too small.

This is a problem, because shoes need to fit a child well. Shoes that are too small or too big can lead to foot deformities like hammer toes, bunions, and arch problems, as well as prevent proper growth and development.

To find shoes that fit properly, parents should keep the following in mind when shopping for shoes:

• Have your child’s feet re-measured at the store to see what size they should really wear in terms of both length and width.
• Don’t rely on the shoe size listed on the shoes – have your child try the shoes on and walk around in them, if possible, to make sure they fit.
• Resist the urge to buy shoes with room to grow – as a rule, leave just an index finger’s width between the tip of your child’s big toe to the end of the shoe.
• Look for shoes that are appropriate for your child’s stage of development and allow for flexibility and stability.

Full text of the press release is available here:

Anthony J. Brown, Manufacturer-listed size for children’s shoes seldom correct, MD, Reuters Health Information, Feb 27, 2009