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For those of you who like to be barefoot, i highly recommend Vibram Five finger shoes. Its like walking barefoot with just a little bit of rubber soles. I bought mine and LOVE them. I get a lot of compliments on them.
They have different styles for what you want to do... hiking, running, general walking. They also have kids sizes too.
These are my beauties.
I have three pairs, I use them in the winter for running, and hiking and canoeing. But they are a next best. Running barefoot is still the ideal.
For those of you who like to be barefoot, i highly recommend Vibram Five finger shoes. Its like walking barefoot with just a little bit of rubber soles. I bought mine and LOVE them. I get a lot of compliments on them.
They have different styles for what you want to do... hiking, running, general walking. They also have kids sizes too.
These are my beauties.
I recently saw someone wearing these and laughed outloud!
They made her feet look like they belonged to a gorilla
But I suppose they are better than being barefoot!
My son never wore shoes or socks when he was a baby and wasn't walking or crawling yet. But once he was moving around, always shoes. He loves to be barefoot but we only do that inside. And when he was just an infant he'd spend all of his time pulling off his socks. When we'd go for a walk in the stroller he would hold his little feet up and let the air hit them.
I can see not wearing shoes at your house or when you are outside, but at Wal-Mart (or any other store?) Who knows what you're picking up on those floors.
I even get skeeved watching people walking around the streets of Manhattan with flip-flops on. Really? All that dog pee and human spit and god knows what else on the sidewalks, and you're exposing your bare feet to that and it doesn't faze you?
And then tracking that crap into your house and car. Put your feet on the couch-bleecchh!
This is timely; went to IKEA today and watched a family with two sons, aged appx 6 and 8, walk the entire store (at our pace which was 1 hr 15 min.) BAREFOOT. I did not see shoes peeking out of someone's purse or in the cart, no sign of 'em at all. Of course, IKEA was crazy busy as well... I can only fathom the dirt and grime on the floor.
They even waited in line behind us for frozen yogurt at the end.
Nothing wrong with a little exposure to germs, parasites, etc. Helps develop the immune system. Hygiene hypothesis anyone?
Oh, and hookworms almost never occur on cement. In my area people are pretty good about taking care of their pets, they tend to scoop and deworm. I worry much more about broken glass than I do hookworm.
First, I didn't write anything about germs. I was only commenting on hookworms. Where I come from, people don't pick up after their animals and most are not wormed as often as they should be. Cats and dogs are seen as work animals, not members of the family.
If you don't mind dealing with worms coming out of the your child's rear end, more power to you. I don't want to deal with that.
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