After-school Special: If your kids play soccer, read this

According to a foot doctor group's press release, soccer can give kids painful ingrown toenails. Here's why:

"It seems like every child is enrolled in a league," says foot and ankle surgeon Matthew Dairman, "The young kids wear hand-me-down cleats that don’t fit exactly right. The older kids like tighter cleats to get a better feel for the ball and the field." Dairman says these tight shoes crowd the toes together. Combine that with repetitive kicking, and you’ve got a recipe for painful ingrown toenails.

To prevent them:
--Trim toenails straight across and don’t cut them too short.
--Check often to make sure children’s cleats fit, because a child’s shoe size can change within a single soccer season.

If your child already has an ingrown toenail, soak the foot in room-temperature water and gently rub the side of the nail fold. And then you can go here to find a toe doctor in the South Bay to do a simple little procedure to make sure it never happens again.