My daughter has worn shoes since she was born. Obviously when they are small you can only buy them the soft cloth shoes but she always wears them. Its good for children to learn that they need to wear them. Also its good for them when they start walking to wear shoes with a hard solid sole it corrects how their feet are positioned on the floor.

Babies don't need shoes. My daughter had bootees and then the soft soled shoes. As silversky32 said children don't need hard sole shoes to learn to walk, it is best if they are bare foot or in soft soled shoes. The hard soled shoes can actually hinder their ability to walk and damage their feet if they ware them to soon. I very rarely put hard soled shoes on my daughter until well after 18 mos. to allow her feet to grow and develop properly.

One thing to keep in mind however is, if you never put hard soled shoes on your child they will have a hard time transitioning to them when the time is right.