How can I help my son manage sport with an ingrown toenail?

[elliejjtiny]

Ds is 13 and has an ingrown toenail. He is waiting to have it removed but it will be about a year. He is really struggling with sports as it's really painful. It's got to the point where he doesn't want to do any physical activity at all. Is there anything I can do to help him? If he takes painkillers and carries on doing sports will he cause himself harm?

I would really like to avoid a year of him not doing anything physical before he has it removed as he has been waiting 6 months already and then there is another 3 months recovery time. Going private isn't an option unfortunately as they don't take under 18's as private patients.

Would check with different Podiatrists - we paid for both children to have theirs done . I really wouldn’t wait for NHS , they threatened to simply remove the nail after a year wait , which doesn’t get rid of the issue with the nail bed

Thankyou. We were told not to bother trying as none of them would do it. I did ring a few but they all said no as he is under 18.

I wonder why you’ve been told no to under 18. DD had an ingrown toenail at age 15 and I paid for her to have a slice removed and chemical treatment in the nailbed to stop it regrowing. If you want to PM me saying what region you’re in I can share our podiatrist.

But for a couple of months before we did that, while trying to figure out how bad it was, we followed advice to soak her foot twice a day in saltwater, to reduce risk of infection and to soften it. She still didn’t want to run or even walk far after, so that likely isn’t enough to help someone who wants to do sport but maybe worth a try.

I had a 14 year old with an I growing toenail and the doctors refused to see him so we had no option but a private podiatrist who saw him no problem.

For us after 2 attempts at trying to help it sort itself they decided removal was the only option at which point my 14 year-old freaked out and refused to go back.

I looked into how to treat an ingrowing toe nail yourself and over the course of about three months nightly treatments which resulted in the toenail recovering and no longer growing into the skin and no issues ever since.

we did Epsom salt baths every evening to soften the skin and then you use an orange stick to gently pull upwards the toenail . Also used tea tree oil and also an ingrown toenail dropper treatment we got from Amazon. Google was my friend !

3 years ago and never another issue. I’m not usually a homeopathic type person but the work was worth it.

Go private for the toe nail removal

My teenager had it done under anaesthetic at the hospital as he didn’t tolerate the podiatrist, all seen on the NHS. He recovered brilliantly and was walking/running around a week later with no pain.