Shoe Size and Foot Growth

For my daughters, I have never had luck buying ahead. My daughters had really narrow feet although as they got older it became more average. I once found a sneaker that my daughter loved and it fit so I bought the next size up. For some weird reason when she outgrew the old sneaker I put her in the new sneaker that I thought was identical but it was too wide and just didn't fit right. Since great fitting shoes are so important I buy them when they need them.

Children grow in spurts, there is no reliable way to predict. If you really like the shoes go ahead and take a chance but be prepared to donate them if they don't "really" fit well.

How old is she? I would probably go 12. She could always do double socks in the winter.

You can't predict, their show size that far ahead.
They can spurt at any time.
My son, who is 6, wears a size 2.5 and almost a 3 soon. I know over the summer he will probably hit that size.
My daughter at that age, wore about a size 1-2.
Often, within 6 months, my kids feet just grew overnight.

How much a kids' foot grows, in the next 6-8 months, is real hard to predict.
Shoes always goes on sale.

What I found with my kids, is that they grew a ton... over summer. Like in the blink of an eye.

My dd is small for her age and her feet really grow slow...same pair of shoes lasts 1.5 to 2 years. Small feet also run in our family.

If your daughter has a foot that easily fits into shoes, then I would go with a 12. If she is finicky or has a bit of a challenge finding shoes that fit properly, then I would just wait.

My daughter and son both had a difficult time finding shoes when they were younger. They just plain had fat feet. Even flip flops... if they fit in length, my daughter's foot was too "tall" and wouldn't fit into/under the thong straps. :/ And my kids aren't fat or even heavy. They just always had feet that were taller than shoes were designed. So I NEVER bought shoes for later. I only bought what they tried on and fit them to wear immediately.

The only shoes I will buy ahead are boots and that's because they have much more give with size. I just can't judge how their feet will grow. My DS9 had his feet grow in spurts till he was 9 and now they have been the same size for over a year. I am afraid to buy him shoes as I am waiting for that next spurt.

My DD5 has never had a foot growth spurt. They grow at a sloooow steady pace. At almost 6 she is wearing an 11. I could buy for her but I am afraid due to my past with DS.

My DS3 has big feet that keep growing. His feet are the same size as his big sisters.

So to answer your question - I have no clue LOL

I guess since they are winter shoes and you live in FL where winter is short I would get the 11.5. Here in Wisconsin I would get the 12 because they may not fit at the beginning of the winter but our winter is so long they could fit at the end.

I'd error on the side of too big. My children have had major growth spurts with their feet. DS was in an 11-12 from age 4-7. Then he jumped to a 3 in about a 2 month time period (over the summer.) DD was the same way - she wore a size 1 from ages 8-11. In less than 2 years she jumped to a size 8 womans! I'd go big- like a size one. You can always stuff a sock in a boot that's too big.

If you were using Zappos, you could return them later and get the correct size - tho I'm not sure they would not adjust the charges for any difference if you had to reorder them (presuming they would still have a size that fit in 6-8 months)

As others have mentioned, at this age you're best off just buying the shoes when you need them. The only exceptions are shoes that don't need to fit perfectly, like snow boots or flip-flops. :)