We usually let him wear pants that cover his knees to minimise bruising in case he falls

Over the past weeks, Darius had been tripping himself while walking or running, falling forward and even bruising his knees on a few occasions. We soon realised that he only tripped when he was wearing his sandals, and not so when he was in his covered shoes. Thus we suspected the problem should lie in his pair of sandals.

From our closer observations, Darius’ trips/falls were caused by his rubbing of the inner sides of the sandals while he was walking or running in them. The sandals were designed to have some small protruding parts on the inner sides (mainly for cosmetic reasons?) and when Darius accidentally rubbed them against each other while moving, it would cause him to lose his balance.

With that, Catherine and I set out to look for new suitable footwear for him. In the meantime, he had to wear his covered shoes instead whenever we were outdoors, even if it was for a short walk downstairs. The sandals were definitely the more convenient option for us since we only needed to slip his feet into them and there was no need to wear his socks. So obviously we would be looking our for sandals/shoes that which could be worn easily and would not require the wearing of socks.

The search for this suitable pair of footwear turned out to be a lengthy one, since most of the shoes we came across had the same ‘problem’ as his previous sandals — protruding parts on the inner sides. That led us into getting rubber shoes like those made by Crocs, where the edges of the shoes were smooth and without any protrusion.

We tried out the rubber shoes of different brands, including that of the original Crocs, but were disappointed as Darius’ size was either out of stock or the absence of a suitable size (some brands make shoes that cover a range of sizes instead of individually catering to each different size).

Last Saturday, we finally stumbled upon a suitable pair of rubber shoes at IMM’s Giant hypermart and we were quite captivated by its design as it has a stripe at the bottom that resembles a pair of sneakers. As for the size, we tried them on Darius while he was fast asleep in his stroller and the shoes appeared to fit him rather well. Since we were already tired of keep searching for his shoes, we decided to just make the purchase without waiting for him to wake up and test the shoes by walking around in them.

Later on, when he woke up from his slumber while we were still in IMM, we changed him to his new shoes to see how he would walk in them. Darius did not take it well however, walking very awkwardly and waddling like a duck. He kept whining and complaining while he moved around in them. Nevertheless, he had no problem walking properly in them so we were glad to have bought the shoes for him.

Since we were satisfied with the experiment’s outcome, we changed him back to his covered shoes so that he would stop complaining. ^^|

"I still prefer my old covered shoes..."

Fortunately back at home the next day, he no longer complained when I brought him out for a stroll in our neighbourhood in his rubber shoes. I was also relieved to see that he would no longer trip or fall in his new footwear and that he was walking comfortably in them.

Darius posing with his new shoes

The only problem is that his shoes may slip off when he’s off the ground (e.g. when we are carrying him). I encountered this several times during our walks and there was one incident where I only discovered he was left with one sandal after I had carried and walked him for some time. Fortunately, I managed to backtrack and locate the missing shoe.

So nowadays, we will don his rubber shoes when we are down for a short walk or during visits to neighbouring places, but will let him wear his shoes when we travel further since it is still the more comfortable shoes and also, Darius will look less casual in them while matching his clothes. As for our trips to and from his childcare centre, we will still let him wear his shoes as they match his uniform better.

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