The Ridiculous Truth About Buying Baby Uggs For Your Newborn

November 2017. I was sitting at a crowded Starbucks on 4th street, wearing yoga pants that were definitely covered in spit-up, frantically wrestling a tiny, caramel-colored sheepskin bootie onto seven-month-old Maya's left foot for the eighth time in twenty minutes. My overpriced vanilla latte was slowly turning into room-temperature sad water on the table. I finally got the heel over her squishy little ankle, took a deep breath, and turned around to grab my drink. She kicked. The boot flew entirely across the cafe and landed under some businessman's chair. Crap.

This was the exact moment I realized my whole pre-motherhood fantasy of having an aesthetic, flawlessly dressed winter infant was a complete joke. Before I had kids, I totally bought into the hype. I thought those miniature shearling boots were an absolute must-have for winter survival. They looked so incredibly cute on Instagram. My husband Dave was like, "Sarah, she literally can't even stand up, why are we spending sixty bucks on footwear?" and I defensively told him it was about thermoregulation. Oh god. I actually used that word out loud in an argument. Anyway, the point is, I thought I was making a really smart parenting choice, but I was basically just buying a very expensive, very kickable sock.

What my pediatrician actually said about tiny shoes

So, when Maya was approaching her first birthday and starting to pull herself up on the furniture, I dragged her into Dr. Miller's office for a checkup. I had this whole panicked list of questions about foot development because I was suddenly convinced I was ruining her arches by making her wear rigid boots. I sort of cornered him while he was checking her ears and asked if the heavy soles were bad for her posture.

He just kind of chuckled, pushed his glasses up, and told me that babies basically don't even need shoes until they're literally walking around outside on the pavement. Like, at all. From what I understood from his extremely rushed five-minute explanation, going barefoot is apparently the absolute best way for them to figure out their balance? I guess heavy, clunky boots can totally alter their natural gait and cause them to trip over their own feet constantly. He said for infants under twelve months, footwear is purely just to keep their toes from freezing since they lose body heat so fast through their extremities. Which makes total sense, but hearing a medical professional say "they just need thick socks" right after I dropped a small fortune on branded shearling footwear was a pretty tough pill to swallow.

The soft bottom versus hard bottom trap

Okay, let's talk about the absolute nightmare that's sole types. I could rant about this for hours. Actually, I'll.

When I had Leo a few years later, I thought I was so much smarter. I bought him these gorgeous infant Uggs that had the soft sheepskin bottoms instead of the heavy rubber ones. They were only for the stroller, right? Well, fast forward to him being 14 months old and suddenly deciding he wanted to practice his cruising skills while we were at the neighborhood park. I figured, what's the harm?

I let him drag his feet along the concrete path for, I kid you not, twenty minutes. Just twenty minutes of him excitedly shuffling along holding my hands. We got back to the minivan, I took the boots off, and the bottoms of these pristine, plush booties looked like they had been violently rubbed against a cheese grater. There were literal holes completely through the suede. Sixty-five dollars, absolutely destroyed in the time it took me to drink a lukewarm Americano. Dave just stared at them and slowly shook his head at me.

If your kid is taking independent steps, you absolutely have to buy the toddler versions with the flexible rubber soles. But even then, they don't have a ton of ankle support. It's this ridiculous balancing act of wanting them to be warm but also not wanting them to walk like tiny, drunk astronauts struggling with gravity.

The sweaty layer problem no one talks about

The funny thing about winter dressing is that we focus so much on the heavy outerwear and the thick boots that we completely forget our kids are wearing twelve layers underneath and probably sweating to death in the car seat. I remember taking those boots off Maya once at a restaurant and her feet were somehow damp, but her core was practically roasting because I had her shoved into a massive knitted sweater. Kids can't keep stable their temps well, and I was making it worse.

What I finally learned to do was layer properly from the base up with the Organic Cotton Baby Bodysuit Sleeveless Infant Onesie underneath all her heavy winter gear. Genuinely, this is my favorite clothing item because the organic cotton is incredibly breathable. So if she was overheating in her sheepskin booties and her puffy coat, her core wasn't suffocating in cheap synthetic fabrics. It's just a solid, stretchy layer that never irritated her eczema patches, which always flared up in November. Plus, when we'd get indoors and strip off the boots and the bulky sweaters, she could just hang out comfortably in the bodysuit and leggings without me having to do a full, screaming wardrobe change in a public restroom.

Why they fall off every five seconds

Here's a fun fact nobody tells you about the classic pull-on shearling styles: babies have incredibly slippery, squishy ankles. They lack actual defined heels.

So when you pull a rigid suede tube over a baby's foot, their natural instinct is to immediately rub their feet together like a little cricket and push the boot right off onto the dirty grocery store floor. If you're going to buy these, or ask your mother-in-law for them on your registry, for the love of everything, get the ones with velcro. Dave and I spent half of 2018 frantically retracing our steps through Target aisles looking for dropped left shoes. The wrap styles that open completely on the side are infinitely better because you can seriously strap them down tight enough to survive a toddler tantrum. Seriously.

If you're keeping them indoors to avoid the whole concrete-destroying issue, you need to distract them from pulling the velcro off anyway. We usually just scatter the Gentle Baby Building Block Set all over our living room rug. They're fine, honestly. They're just soft rubber blocks. Leo liked chewing on them way more than stacking them, but the main perk for me is that when I inevitably step on one at 6 AM while chasing a barefoot toddler around the coffee table in the dark, I don't scream in blinding agony. They're soft enough to not completely ruin my morning, which is a massive win in my book.

Snow and suede are mortal enemies

Don't ever let your kid wear sheepskin boots in the slush or snow, because the suede will instantly ruin and their feet will be freezing and wet.

My completely biased buying checklist

Okay, so if you're still determined to buy miniature sheepskin footwear despite my rambling, here's how I'd approach it knowing what I know now.

• For the newborn potato stage (0-9 months): Honestly, save your money. Ask for them as a gift if you really want the cute holiday photo op by the tree, but otherwise, snap-closure booties or basic socks are way more practical and won't make you cry when one gets lost.
• For the cruising stage (9-18 months): Only buy the side-opening velcro ones. Wrestling a squirming, screaming child into a stiff boot while you're already sweating in your winter coat is my personal definition of hell.
• For the walkers: Get the rubber soles, but treat them strictly as "dry cold" shoes. They're car-to-indoor boots. They're not playground boots.
• The budget reality: Hit up the second-hand market. Kids outgrow these things so stupidly fast. They jump two shoe sizes in six months, I swear. You can find pristine, barely-worn infant boots on resale apps for like fifteen bucks because some other exhausted mom bought them, her baby kicked them off twice, and she just gave up.

Look, parenting is hard enough without constantly worrying about losing overpriced footwear or ruining suede. You have to pick your battles. Sometimes that means letting them go completely barefoot in the house while they happily play with their Rainbow Play Gym Set with Animal Toys, which honestly is a really great little setup. Maya used to lay under ours for solid twenty-minute stretches, giving me just enough time to honestly reheat and drink my coffee in peace.

Anyway, before you stress out about whether your baby's winter wardrobe is perfectly curated for the cold, remember that half the time they're going to end up in mismatched socks and a stained onesie anyway. If you want to focus on upgrading their indoor playtime instead of fighting with outdoor footwear, check out Kianao's wooden toy collection to keep those little hands busy while their feet stay warm.

Parenting FAQs I learned the hard way

Do infants really need heavy boots for winter?

Honestly, no. Dr. Miller basically laughed at me when I asked this. From what I can gather, their little feet just need basic warmth when they aren't walking yet. Heavy rigid boots just weigh them down and make them frustrated. I'd stick to thick socks or soft wraps until they're really hitting the pavement.

How do I stop my kid from kicking off their sheepskin booties?

You probably can't. Babies are like tiny, determined escape artists. But if you get the ones with the massive velcro strap across the side, your odds improve drastically. The standard slip-on tube ones are a lost cause. Just trust me on this, I've lost too many to count.

Are toddler shearling boots safe for new walkers?

It's kind of a gray area? If you get the hard rubber sole versions, they won't slip as much, but they still don't have great ankle support. Dave thinks they make Leo walk like a drunk penguin. I try to only use them for going from the car to the house, not for like, intense park expeditions where he needs to balance.

Can my baby wear suede boots in the slush?

Absolutely not, they'll get ruined instantly and your kid will scream because their toes are soaking wet and freezing cold.

How long will they genuinely fit?

Maybe three months? If you're incredibly lucky. Kids grow so incredibly fast that dropping a bunch of money on shoes they'll wear ten times is kind of painful. You can size up slightly so the inner wool compresses to fit them longer, but yeah, don't expect them to last until next winter.