Besides, children typically grow in spurts. You may wear two or three properly fitted pairs out, before your child starts growing again. My daughter wore size 3 shoes for nearly 2 years, then in one summer her feet went from a street size 3 to a size 6.5. We were constantly buying new everything for the entire summer. Now three years later she’s still a shoe size 6.5.

Wearing socks with ballet slippers, is not really a good idea either, as it will reduce the child’s feel of the floor and also can cause the shoe not to turn with the foot which could result in an injury. This is especially true if the child is wearing the socks over tights. Coarser socking material can also lead to blisters where they rub the feet against the shoe.

Leather slippers will ususally stretch to their acceptable limits by virtue of merely wearing them – the body heat and perspiration will make them stretch and mold to the toes. If the child’s feet have grown to the point that the shoes are too tight, there’s probably not a lot of “stretch” left anyway.

Also beware tightening the drawstrings too much. They are there to take up the gaping on the sides of a “fitted” shoe. They are not intended to be used to cinch up an oversized shoe to the foot. Doing this puts a lot of tension across the back of the Achilles Tendon and can cause heel injuries.

If in doubt, always read what the shoe manufacturer tells you about fitting their dance shoes. I’ve yet to see one that doesn’t stress the importance of picking shoes that fit the feet as they are right now to prevent injuries.

Also for the record, as far as ballet and jazz are concerned, most trained dance teachers today want their younger dance students to dance barefoot so the student can get the feel of the floor in relation to their body movements and don’t even consider requiring shoes till the child has reached a certain level of skill.