Although for many years we were told by parents that the best way for children's feet to develop was with rigid shoes, to be able to be boots, to take their ankle and allow them little freedom, the reality is very different. Come on, the best is the opposite, that go barefoot as much as possible and that when you have to put them on, it is with light shoes that allow your ankles to have total freedom of movement.
The reason is that bare feet develop much better, stronger, with a higher bridge and better use of foot structures. Barefoot, even at home. What if they are not going to catch a cold? No, don't worry, they won't catch a cold for it.
The best foot development by going barefoot
As we have explained on other occasions, each of our children's feet has 26 bones, 33 joints and more than 100 tendons, muscles and ligaments. This makes us see that our feet are a true work of "evolutionary engineering" designed to walk through the most unsuspected terrain, currently completely wasted.
In Babies and more Barefoot children, more intelligent (and above all, happier)They are prepared so that we can walk on the mountain, between stones, winding areas, climb trees, etc., because all their structures would allow us to adapt to all types of terrain. However, since we were little we cover and insulate them with shoes with a certain cushioning, closed, or shoes, and then we do not let them exercise enough.
Look to what extent the best or worst development of the feet is decisive that, in Kenya, the country that forms the best elite runners, the children who win the races are not the ones who wear slippers, but those who go barefoot.
"I'm afraid they catch a cold"
They know. Many mothers know that it is better for children to go barefoot at home and yet avoid it. They are afraid that the contact of their skin with the cold soil will cause them to get a cold from an old health myth that says "colds enter through the feet."
But no, colds do not enter the feet, and the viruses either, so children can go perfectly barefoot and not catch a cold.
Doesn't it make sense to you? Well, right now we explain it: as it explains pediatrician Gloria Colli On their website, colds happen for two reasons that must occur at the same time: virus and cold.
Viruses are everywhere throughout the year. They pass from the respiratory tract of one person to that of another person directly (when speaking, sneezing, coughing, etc.) or indirectly, through the hands, if we touch surfaces where the viruses are and we take them to our mouths or the nose Those viruses stay in our mucous membranes and, depending on how the body responds, will cause us a cold or not.
This means that not always that a virus enters our body causes us infection. If so, we would always be sick.
When do we get sick more easily? Well, when it is cold because it is easier for us to get infected in the hottest places (we go out less to the street, we are in closed places because it is cold and the viruses take advantage of the heat and the lack of ventilation and renewal of the air to make of yours).
Then we go out, with the virus in our nose and the cold is a perfect complement: the cold causes vasoconstriction in the mucosa of the nose, having a lower presence of leukocytes (defenses), and also causes a lower cilia movement, which act as a barrier to reduce the passage of germs to the respiratory tract. That is why in winter it is easier for viruses to cause colds.
In other words, if we lived in a place where it is always cold and we were barefoot, or without clothes, but there was no virus, we would not catch a cold. And if we lived in a place where there were many viruses, but it wasn't cold, we would catch a little cold.
In Babies and more, to class without shoes! Barefoot children learn more and better So if a child goes barefoot to the street or to the terrace in winter, yes, he will probably catch a cold if he has a virus swarming his nose, but not because he is barefoot, but by breathing cold air. It follows that we can let them go barefoot at home without any problem, even in winter. They will catch a cold when touched, but not by going barefoot.
In any case, if there is still a mother (or grandmother) to whom this does not convince her, she can always buy non-slip socks.
Photos | Pixabay (Bruno Glätsch), Pexels (Dominika Roseclay)
In Babies and more | Barefoot children, more intelligent (and above all, happier), Children who breathe through the mouth and the cold, Why with cold there are more colds and flu?
