How to measure kids' feet at home

To measure your child's foot, have them stand with weight on the foot, then measure from the back of the heel to the tip of the longest toe. Measure both feet and use the longer one, in centimeters if you can.

What are you measuring?

You are measuring foot length: the straight line from the back of the heel to the tip of the longest toe. The longest toe is not always the big toe, so look closely.

• Standing, weight on the foot. A foot spreads and gets a little longer when your child stands on it.
• Both feet. Most kids have one foot a bit longer than the other. Use the longer one. The American Podiatric Medical Association recommends buying for the larger foot.
• Later in the day, if you can. Feet tend to be a little bigger after a day of running around, so an afternoon or evening measurement is a good habit.
• Bare feet or thin socks. Use the kind of sock they will wear with the shoe.

Write the number down in centimeters. A length in centimeters works with every brand's chart, so it is the most useful number you can have.

Method 1: Measure with Parsnip!

Parsnip is a free app for iPhone and Android that helps you measure your child's foot without paper, a printer or a card. You still do the measuring, but using only your phone.

There are three ways to measure:

1. Picture Tap is the method we recommend. It freezes one camera frame, so you can tap the heel and toe on a still image, even if your child wiggles.
2. Live Tap is an AR ruler in the live camera: tap the heel, then the toe.
3. Manual Entry skips the camera, so you can type a length you already have from Method 2 or 3, in centimeters or inches.

To measure with Picture Tap:

1. Point the camera at the foot and freeze one frame.
2. On the still frame, tap the heel and then the toe.
3. Drag each pin so the center dot of its circle sits right on the edge of the heel and the tip of the longest toe.
4. Tap Set.

The app then asks for the other foot and sizes from the longer one. Can't measure both feet? Just remeasure foot 1.

Method 2: paper against a wall

This is the classic way, and it is the one most brands describe: trace the foot on paper and measure the tracing with a tape.

1. Tape a sheet of paper to the floor, with one short edge flat against a wall.
2. Have your child stand on the paper with their heel touching the wall.
3. Hold a pencil straight up and mark the tip of the longest toe. Or trace around the whole foot.
4. Measure from the wall edge of the paper to the mark, in centimeters.
5. Repeat with the other foot. Keep the longer number.

Be honest with yourself about how it went. Toddlers curl their toes, lift their heel off the wall or walk away mid-trace. A tilted pencil can also add a few millimeters. If the number looks odd, do it again.

Method 3: a ruler or tape measure

You can measure straight off the foot with a rigid ruler, which works well for kids who can stand still for a few seconds.

1. Lay a rigid ruler on the floor with the zero end against a wall.
2. Have your child stand with their heel against the wall and the foot along the ruler.
3. Read the number at the tip of the longest toe. Look straight down, not from an angle.
4. Repeat with the other foot. Keep the longer number.

A soft sewing tape is fine for measuring a paper tracing. It is harder to use on the foot itself, because it bends over the toes and reads long.

Tips for wiggly kids

The trick with a wiggly toddler is to make the measuring short and catch the moment they are still.

• Pick a calm time, like after a snack or during a show.
• Have another adult or an older sibling hold their hands while they stand.
• Make it a game: "Can you stand like a statue?"
• Watch the toes. Curled toes read short, so wait until they relax.
• Do one foot, take a break, then do the other.
• With Picture Tap you only need them still for two moments: one frozen frame for each foot. Once the second frame is frozen, they can run off while you place the pins.

How often should you measure again?

For young kids, measure every couple of months. Kids' feet grow fast and on their own schedule.

• Stride Rite says feet grow about half a size every 2 months under 15 months, every 2–3 months from 15 months to 2 years, every 3–4 months at ages 2–3, and about every 4 months at ages 3–5. It recommends measuring every two months.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics' HealthyChildren.org suggests checking shoe fit about once a month for toddlers.
• The APMA recommends checking size every 4–6 months, because of growth and differences between brands.

Also measure again whenever you see red marks, toes pressing the front of the shoe, or hear "my shoes hurt." Kids don't always complain when shoes are tight, so a quick check is worth it. In one large study of 858 preschoolers, most children were wearing shoes that were too short (Klein et al., 2009).

What to do with the number

Once you have the foot length in centimeters, turn it into a size and decide how much room to add.

• Look up the length in our kids' shoe size chart, which starts with centimeters and then shows US, UK and EU sizes.
• Decide on extra room. Our growing room guide explains how much space to leave and why.
• If the length lands near the top of the toddler sizes, read 13C vs 1Y so the jump to youth sizes doesn't surprise you.
• Remember that brands run differently. In Parsnip, one measurement gives you a size estimate for each of 15 brands, with a short note on how each one runs.