When do our feet stop growing?
Good question! By the age of 14, most girls feet have stopped growing. For boys, this occurs around 16. However, there are a number of factors throughout our lives that can cause the feet to change size. During pregnancy the ligaments in the foot relax, this combined with swelling and weight gain can cause the size of the feet to increase. The amount of pressure applied to the feet also plays a part – poorly fitting footwear can restrict natural growth and development. This is why it’s particularly important to ensure that children wear good shoes. As we get older, deformity and illness can change the shape of our feet, making it trickier to find footwear that fits. You might not have known that different bones grow at different rates! For example, the heel bone or the calcaneus is one of the last bones to stop growing, unlike the cuboid, a cube shaped bone found on the outside part of the foot.