Ballet Pointe Shoes - Daugther's Toe/bone Pain

by Tricia
(New Jersey)

Ballet Pointe Shoes - Daugther's Toe/bone Pain

Hello,

I have a daughter who is 10 years 7 months. She has been doing ballet and only ballet since she was 4. In December she, along with her level 4 were all told they were ready to go en pointe. So I went out and had her fitted in Phila for her first pair of pointe shoes. They recommended Russian point size 34 4 width, vamp 2, shank FS. She has been on pointe 1 day a week for about 1 hour and 15 minutes since February. Now that the "summer intensive" has started this week, she is coming home every day telling me that she was on pointe. Tomorrow will be the 4th day. She told me about a month ago that her shoes were getting too small, but i thought i would give it a little bit more time before i ran out to get a new pair. I feel terrible about it now bc she is in a lot of pain and crying in class today as her feet hurt so bad. I went out this morning and had her fitted again. They recommended the same shoe just a size up to 35. The only change was that the owner thought the old shoes were to wide so she gave her a 3 instead of a 4 to test to see if they were better. They did feel better. My dilema now is that i took them to another place to have the ribbons sewn on and they will be ready on Friday but my daughter just advised me that they will be goin on pointe again tomorrow! Should i not let her work with the pointe shoes that are too small? She is telling me that her bones hurt. Is that normal?
Thanks so much,
Worried Mom

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Reply by Odette
To:- Ballet Pointe Shoes - Daugther's Toe/bone Pain

Hi Tricia,
Thanks for contacting me, I can feel your worry by just reading your message! First things first, do not panic. There is ALWAYS a solution.

In your daughter's case, the sore feet and painful toes with pointe shoes is most probably caused by doing too much or a lot of pointe work consistently. I know she has been on pointe since December, but she is still young and even just a lot of ballet dancing will tire her out especially in pointe shoes.

If it is her bones hurting, then this is something I feel more cautious about. Only because, muscles do get sore and toes do get painful but bones not so much. Are you sure it is her bones?

Dancing on pointe shoes that are too small will definitely not help her painful feet nor her dancing. At all. In general, pointe shoes that do not fit properly are to avoid and if you are sure they are definitely too small, then your daughter should perhaps do the pointe class on flat tomorrow.

This will probably seem like HUGE deal to her to miss out on wearing pointe shoes, but especially if her bones are sore it will do her more good than harm to dance on flat for the meanwhile.

Summer intensives are known to be very intense and challenging, usually more so than what they do in their everyday classes. This sounds correct in your case too, since she is doing pointe everyday which is a massive jump from just doing it once a week.

I would explain the situation to the ballet teachers to say your haven't got the new pointe shoes yet and she is having foot pains, then they will be sure to understand. After all, summer intensives are meant to be fun as well so don't worry.

I am always here to help, hope this cured your worries a little bit!

Best wishes,
Odette