Questions in the title really.

Did you buy cruisers before your LO's first proper walking shoes? If so, do you feel they were a worthwhile purchase?

Maia goes barefoot at home and I prefer it that way as she's comfy with nothing on her feet and of course there is nothing restricting her foot development in any way.

We are having problems when we go out to toddler groups and when she's at nursery however where it isnt as warm as our house and she's standing on and crawling over hard floors.

She doesn't keep socks on for five minutes and although she can't take tights off she pulls at the feet of them until they are long enough for her to trip over.

I struggle to keep pram shoes on her but to be honest they don't fit well and she doesn't walk (by that I mean cruise) as well in them.

Maia is standing independently and cruising confidently/walking well with push along toys or holding my hands but is yet to take an independent step.

Do you think cruisers will be the answer for us or would I be better to bare with it another few months until she's walking and get walkers?

If I did buy cruisers she would still not wear them at home

Isobel is at the same stage. I researched cruisers a while ago as was thinking about letting her walk outside sometimes, but I found that they are detrimental to foot development and learning to walk. They force the foot into the wrong shape for their stage and prevent them being able to naturally feel what they're doing.

A friend of mine uses Sock Ons - perhaps this might be worth a try? Isobel does pull her socks off but not often enough to be a big problem, and when at playgroups etc she's too interested in other things, so I haven't tried much myself to solve this problem. I let her walk around the playground the other day in her pramsuit (with feet on) lol, it needed washing anyway though!

Tom had cruiser for a good 5 months as he was cruising for that long before walking on his own. He needed them for nursery and also was walking outside holding hands pretty much every day from October to March so barefoot was not an option then. He was just in socks or barefoot the rest of the time.

Properly fitted cruisers from somewhere like Clarks are not going to do harm to her feet and IMO if it means they can start doing things like walking outside then its a worthwhile investment.

He's been walking for nearly a yr now and the cruisers have done no damage to his feet.

My LO was taking a few shaky unaided steps and cruising/standing unaided with confidence when I got her a pair of Clarks cruisers for playgroup and outdoors. They definately delayed her walking, encouraged tip toe walking and it took another couple of months before she was confident enough to try walking (no shoes this time!) again xx

We didn't bother, I have heard barefeet are best for babies, our nursery doesn't allow shoes of any kind inside, so socks was always fine (still is he only wears shoes outside) when he kept taking them off I used sock ons. Just a waste of money IMO but then we just didn't need them in our circumstances IYKWIM.

we had them as LO insisted on being down in shops and outside to hold hands to walk. and i wasnt going to let her do that in bare feet They were fine, i found they stayed on and never fell off, didnt restrict her feet in anyway, and def didnt delay her walking at all.

He wore cruisers, but only when he needed to wear them, although he mostly wore them when he was walking, they were much lighter and softer for him to pick up his little feet and to get use to shoes before going onto proper shoes.. Clarks all the way, he won't wear any other shoe!

We have hard floors through out our down stairs and lo was very late crawling and pulling herself to standing because she has no grip on the floor. We bought cruisers just after Xmas and shes very confident cruising on furniture now and has started walking holding our hands.

So for us yes they are worth it.

Olly has cruisers, they haven't affected his walking in any way. His feet are too small for first shoes. He's walking and running now but even when he was still cruising around he used to wear them to play group and visiting his grandparents (wooden floors) they protected his feet a lot. He doesn't wear any shoes when we are at home.

I've never bothered with cruisers for either of mine-I don't think they are worth the money at all. Esther was a late walker at 18months but had been crawling and cruising for around 8 months before then. If we went out and it was raining she went in the pushchair; if it was dry she crawled or cruised in the soft leather soled shoes.


It's best to keep them out of shoes for as long as you can-any reputable shoe-shop will tell you that. The only ones that advocate cruisers are those shops that sell them!!