Pre-walker shoes are useful for when your baby reaches the stage of crawling confidently on all fours or on his belly (or variations thereof), and is beginning to cruise around the house using items like furniture to aid moving from one point to another.

My son Codi, reached this stage at around 9 months, and protecting his feet then became an issue. More so once winter began to set in. I eagerly rushed off and bought what I called "Ninja Shoes" - thick woolly socks connected to a medium flexible base. The problem I found with these shoes was the fact that they were forever needing attention. Each time my son crawled around with them on, these pre-walker shoes would get into all sorts of different positions and  eventually one or both of them would fall off.  They were also supposed to act like computer socks and not fall down.

So I tried again. I went and bought some more pre-walker shoes in a sale, an Osh Kosh brand. These were great, but I became concerned when I got home and I realized the base was quite hard and quite restricting on my son's exploring feet. He was finding these shoes difficult to use when he was most active inside crawling around and cruising.  There had to be something better, I began to email my mother's group (of about 20 of us), to find out what they used. It turned out they began with using a soft leather pre-walker shoe, designed to be relatively easy for baby to get used to having something on their feet. It appeared from my replies to my email that this was the style that mum's  voted was best and most versatile.

What is different about these pre-walker shoes?
This type of pre-walker shoes are almost like dancer's shoes made for children, so they move with the feet. Generally you can buy these shoes for newborn to 4 years. However, the most useful time is when your child is beginning to crawl around confidently or at the cruising stage and are using their feet continuously.

What brand did I buy?
After spending money on the previous ones I wish I had asked around first, a good tip for new moms. I found a shop that sold the "soft leather pre-walker shoes". The brand I bought were "Robeez" (see external links for info), they are fantastic. The reason why I prefer this brand, is that they firstly specialise in these design of shoes, so a lot of development has gone into it's creation. Secondly, they are very well made and in my experience lasted a lot longer than other similar brands I used. They are priced within a reasonable range which helps if you want to buy more than one.

Benefits
The best thing for me is that Codi can still feel his feet along the floor as he crawls and cruises around. He is not crying every time I put them on and is not, the clumsy little man with the ninja shoes. He is having so much fun now inside the house and for my piece of mind I know his feet are nice and warm. The other useful thing is that they also have enough room for socks as well when it gets really cold. I found that they helped Codi to grip the floor as he crawled. If I tried regular socks he would slip and it would be quite dangerous for him to try and pull to stand. At this inital stage of 9 months, he was too little to use non-slip socks with the gel base, so these pre-walker shoes really worked for me.

Out and about
I also found that if you are thinking about buying another pair of the soft leather shoes, you also have a choice of different quality of leather, as well as a different thickness of leather. I recommend that all should be made in soft leather to start with. In my experience it really helps with comfort and most importantly doesn't restrict the feet. Check the thickness depending on the use, especially for out of the house. You still want to maintain the objective of protecting the feet, so durable leather that is not too thin, were glass or stones or the surface of the road can't tear the leather, is most useful, and will last longer.

As baby progresses from soft leather
I found that in the end, it was handy having the hard soled Osh Kosh pair I bought a few months before. Codi had become more and more confident standing upright. At around 11 months he was trying to walk aided most of the time. At this stage I found it was great to encourage his desire to practice. He would happily crawl over to me, use my pointer fingers to stand up and walk along. It very exciting to reach this stage. The Osh Kosh pair proved to be more supportive with his action of walking upright. The hard base was like a normal pair of shoes and gave greater protection outside along footpaths. Codi eventually began using the gel based non-slip socks for use inside as he approached his first birthday, and onwards to 18 months. In winter however, I still use the soft leather shoes for greater warmth.

So to recap the types of pre-walker shoes I have come across are;
- Thick woolly socks connected to a shoe and medium hard base.
- Hard base almost like normal shoes.
- Soft dance type shoes in different thickness of leather.

Process I used;
- Begin with soft leather
- Have a pair of durable soft leather ones for outside travels
- Once they are spending more time upright introduce non-slip socks for indoors and harder based pre-walker shoes for outside.