My daughter's bunions.

My daughter (She's 12 years old.) inherited bunions from her mom's side
of the family. They didn't hurt her so we never did anything about
them. Now that she's older, she's getting more and more involved with
gymnastics and every time I pick her up from practice, she complains
about how bad her bunions hurt. Has anybody else dealt with adolescent
bunions and do you have any ideas on what I could do for her? She
really likes the gymnastics and I don't want her to have to stop but
her hobbling around on sore bunions has to stop!

Amy Austin...

I have them too. I really wish that I had gotten them fixed
(surgically) when I was a kid and I had the summers and TIME to be out
of commission for several weeks. I never wanted to "ruin" my summer by
having surgery, and being off my feet for so long. But since then I
was in college (not a chance) then I had a bunch of jobs with no
insurance (and the surgery is expensive), and now I have a baby
(hahaha) and being out of commission for weeks is NOT an option.

If you can afford it at all, see a podiatrist and have them fixed.
They basically go in and break all the foot bones and realign them
properly. It'll save her YEARS of pain. Mine are terrible now, and I
have no idea when I'm going to get them fixed - probably when my last
kid goes to college. That could be 25 years from now... *sigh*

My aunt had the surgery, and hers are a LOT better.

Take care,
Amy