Children are “suffering” in shoes that are too small due to the continued closure of shoe shops, with some parents resorting to “black market” arrangements, a consultant paediatrician has said. In a lot of cases parents had difficulty ordering new school shoes online, as children returned to classrooms in recent weeks, she said. “One woman told me of her experience getting three different pairs of shoes online and sending them back, because none of them fitted,” she said. A simple solution would be for shoe shops to be permitted to re-open to sell children’s shoes by appointment, she said. Under current Level 5 lockdown restrictions all non-essential retail, which includes shoe shops, are closed.

Source: The Irish Times March 30, 2021 19:55 UTC