Parents, doctors debate tots teetering in heels

A pair of sparkly, peekaboo shoes with heels 5cm high are six-year-old Helena Bell's favourites, ever since she got to wear to a wedding.

"She's worn them to the point where the jewels have fallen off," says Helena's mother, Dana Bell.

"It's not my preference, but I've stopped fighting it."

The heels are not allowed at school, but the year one student slips on her white treasures first thing when she gets home and wears them to church every Sunday.

"I think if it's within reason, it's okay," her mum says.

As images of three-year-old Suri Cruise out and about in blinged up heels recently hit magazines and the internet, reactions to the grown-up look for not-so-old kids have ranged from cries of inappropriate to defence of a little girl's right to be girlie.

Suri's celebrity mum, Katie Holmes, told Access Hollywood that she considers the kitten heels supportive because they were made specifically for kids learning ballroom dancing.

Samantha Fein says her six-year-old daughter has attracted some double-edge remarks when she wears her knee-high boots with a 5cm chunky heel or her brown wedges with only slightly less height.

Fein says her child wears sneakers 90 per cent of the time and heels on special occasions, like birthday parties.

"It's not like I'm sending her to the park in them," she says.

"I think there's a time and a place for everything."

San Francisco is relatively fashion forward, so it is not unusual to see girls that young wearing heels.

Fein says they have helped her daughter learn to walk like a lady.

"They're definitely not suggestive at all. Suggestive to me is inappropriate."

The phenomenon falls in line with other trends in clothing, books, music and movies once reserved for older audiences trickling down the age ladder.

As Christina Vercelletto, senior editor of Parenting magazine, has been putting together the spring fashion edition, she has noticed shoes for girls as young as five sporting heels as high as 2.5cm.

"I am seeing these heeled shoes, shoes that would be considered a little too grown up typically for a girl that age," she says.

"I think it's definitely a trend for five or six-year-olds."

In years past, heels didn't exist for girls younger than about eight or nine, Vercelletto says.

"I do feel that it's rushing it a little to put a girl three-years-old in shoes like that," said Vercelletto, among those who fear the physical perils.

Unlike other trends, heels pose physical risks that include a tightening of the heel cord and changes in the growth plate.

Matthew Dairman, a Virginia foot and ankle surgeon urges parents to limit wear to once or twice a week for four hours at a stretch – if at all.

Another important factor, he says, is difficulty in keeping kids from running, which could make those in heels more susceptible to ankle sprains or broken bones.

"You put a kid in a heel and someone touches them and says tag, they're it – they're off," Dairman says.

"Moderation is key."

Michael Penrod, a sales representative for children's footwear brand says adult styles began surfacing in children's footwear a decade ago.

While manufacturers do offer heels in sizes small enough to possibly fit a three-year-old, stores are more likely to carry sizes meant from age five and up.

Heels for young girls get mixed reactions from buyers, with more interest from bigger department stores.

James W Brodsky, an orthopaedic surgeon, says healthy shoes for kids are similar to healthy shoes for adults – not too high a heel, plenty of width in the toe box, soft natural materials to conform to the shape of the foot and good support.

Dr Dairman does see some value in girls around 12 or so learning to wear heels, when their bones have developed.

And while he does not think younger girls wearing heels is that widespread, "as kids seem to be aging quicker, it's something that should be addressed".

Lisa Spiegel, a counsellor and director of a New York City parenting resource centre, says worry about kids aging too fast is on the minds of parents today.

She says she hasn't noticed a prevalence of young girls wearing heels but does know parents contending with young girls wanting to wear makeup or dress in skimpy clothes.

"We really, really try to help families hold on to their better instincts that kids should be children and not little adults," she says.

- AP