How this mom figured out the cause of her daughter’s Heel Pain and what remedy allowed her to keep training as a gymnast.

One gym mom shares how the busiest training summer of her daughter's life turned into months of heel pain, useless doctor visits, and tears in the car, and the simple fix that finally let her land again.

Jenna Whitmore - Mom of 2

Title

Published 2 weeks ago

1,000+ Ratings

If you're the parent of a gymnast, a cheerleader, or a dancer, you already know something most people don't:

 

Summer isn't the off-season. It's the hardest season of the year.

 

While other kids are taking three months off, our girls are in the gym more than ever. Summer intensives. Twice-a-day training. Camps. Competition prep that doesn't pause for July.

 

So when my 11-year-old daughter Brooke started limping after practice, I couldn't blame "too much sitting around" or "she's just out of shape."

 

She was in the best shape of her life. And her heels were killing her.

 

If your daughter winces when she lands, rubs her heels after every practice, or has started holding back on her tumbling — please keep reading. Because what I found out explained everything, and it had nothing to do with her technique.

The Practice That Finally Scared Me

Brooke has been in the gym since she was five. She's tough. She's fallen off the beam more times than I can count and bounced right back up.

 

So when she came off the floor crying — and it wasn't from a fall — I knew something was wrong.

 

"Mom, I can't land anymore. My heels hurt every time I come down."

This wasn't a kid making excuses to skip practice. Brooke loves the gym. For her to say she couldn't land, the pain had to be real.

 

I watched her the rest of that week. The careful way she walked to the car. The way she'd sit down and immediately reach for her heels. The wince every single time she came down from a jump.

 

By the weekend she was favoring one foot just walking around the house.

 

That's when the worry set in — because I had no idea what we were dealing with.

We Did Exactly What the Doctor Told Us

Our pediatrician took one look and gave us the answer most parents get:

 

"It's just growing pains. Rest, ice, maybe some ibuprofen. She'll grow out of it."

 

So we pulled her from a few sessions. We iced her heels every night. We waited.

And it seemed to work — right up until she went back to full training.

 

Within two practices, the pain was back exactly as before. The tumbling passes she'd landed a hundred times suddenly hurt. She started pulling out of skills. Her coach noticed she was holding back.

 

For a competitive gymnast in the middle of summer training, "just rest" isn't a plan — it's falling behind. Every week off the floor is a week her teammates are getting stronger and she isn't.

 

That night, after Brooke went to bed, I opened my laptop. I was done being told to wait. I needed to understand what was actually happening inside her foot.

What I Found Made Everything Click

The term that kept coming up was Sever's disease.

 

Scary name, but it's not really a disease — it's the single most common cause of heel pain in growing kids, and it affects roughly 1 in 3 active children. In high-impact sports like gymnastics, cheer, and dance, it's even more common.

Here's the part nobody explained to me:

 

Between ages 8 and 14, there's a soft growth plate at the back of the heel bone, where new bone is still forming. The Achilles tendon — the strongest tendon in the body — attaches directly to it.

 

During a growth spurt, the heel bone grows fast. But the tendon doesn't grow at the same speed. It stays tight, and pulls on that soft growth plate with every step, every jump, every landing.

 

That constant pulling is the pain.

 

And then I read the part that made everything make sense for a gymnast:

Kids often grow the fastest in late spring and summer — exactly when our girls are training the hardest.

 

So while Brooke's body was in a growth spurt, she was also doing hundreds of high-impact landings a day. The worst possible combination, at the worst possible time of year.

 

The "off-season" everyone talks about? For us, it doesn't exist.

Why Gymnastics, Cheer, and Dance Are So Hard on Growing Heels

Once I understood the mechanism, I finally understood why these sports specifically wreck kids' heels.

Hundreds of landings a day. Every dismount, every tumbling pass, every jump comes down through the heel. A single practice can mean hundreds of impacts on the exact spot that's already inflamed.

 

Hard surfaces. Spring floors help, but beams, mats over concrete, and gym and studio floors are unforgiving. Cheer especially — a lot of it happens on hard gym floors and basketball courts.

 

Bare feet or paper-thin shoes. Gymnasts train barefoot. Dancers wear thin ballet, jazz, or pointe shoes with almost no heel support. Cheerleaders wear flat, minimal sneakers. There's nothing between that growing heel and the floor.

 

Hours, not minutes. A summer intensive can mean 4, 5, even 6 hours a day. That's not a workout — that's relentless repetition on a vulnerable growth plate.

 

None of this is a sign your daughter is doing anything wrong. It's the nature of her sport meeting the timing of her growth. And in summer, both peak at once.

Why Everything We Tried Didn't Work

Once I understood the real problem — traction on the growth plate during activity — I finally understood why nothing stuck.

❌ Rest: It only pauses the pain. The growth spurt doesn't pause, and neither does the competition calendar. The moment she went back to training, the pain came right back.

 

❌ Ice and ibuprofen: They calmed the inflammation for a few hours. They did nothing about the pulling that causes it. And I hated giving my daughter pills before every practice.

 

❌ Drugstore gel heel cups: They cushion the bottom of the heel. But in Sever's the force comes from behind, the tendon pulling on the back of the growth plate. Wrong spot entirely. And you can't even use them barefoot on the floor.

 

❌ Custom orthotics: $300+, and useless for a sport where she's barefoot or in thin shoes. You can't put an orthotic in a ballet slipper or a leotard.

 

We weren't doing anything wrong. We were given solutions designed for the wrong problem — and for the wrong kind of athlete.

How I Finally Found Something That Made Sense

I ended up in a Facebook group for gym moms — the ones who live at the gym waiting through 4-hour practices.

 

One of them mentioned a sleeve called the Sooftie ComfortHeel. She said her daughter wore it through their entire summer intensive and the after-practice limp finally stopped.

 

I almost scrolled past. I'd tried half a dozen "miracle" fixes that did nothing.

 

But this one was different.

 

It wasn't a generic compression sock. It wasn't an insole. It wasn't a clunky brace.

 

It was a sleeve engineered to wrap the heel and deliver targeted compression exactly where the Achilles tendon attaches to the growth plate — the precise point of stress during every landing.

 

Instead of squeezing the whole foot evenly, it concentrates support right where the pulling happens. Less pull = less irritation = the heel finally gets a chance to calm down while she keeps training.

What Are Targeted Compression Sleeves? Are They Uncomfortable?

And here's what sold me for her specifically:

 

It's thin and low-profile. It works barefoot on the floor, under dance shoes, inside cheer sneakers, or with any shoe. It doesn't get in the way of pointing her toes or sticking a landing.

 

For the first time, I'd found something that supported her heel during the exact moments that were hurting it — the landings — not before, not after.

 

It's designed for kids 8 to 15, not a shrunken-down adult product. And it came with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

 

I ordered one that night, telling myself that if it didn't work, I'd just send it back.

What Makes the Sooftie ComfortHeel Different

It compresses the right spot, not the whole foot. Generic compression socks squeeze everything evenly. ComfortHeel concentrates pressure on the heel and the insertion point of the Achilles tendon — the exact area under stress on every landing.

 

It's designed for kids, not scaled down from adults. A child's tissues are softer and more sensitive. The pressure is calibrated for the 8–15 age range, exactly when the growth plate is most vulnerable.

 

It works barefoot, in dance shoes, or in cheer sneakers. Thin and low-profile, so it fits the reality of these sports — not just a chunky athletic shoe.

 

It works DURING the activity, not just afterward. Ice, rest, and pills all come before or after. ComfortHeel supports the growth plate while she's landing — which is exactly when the damage happens.

Putting It to the Test (And I Honestly Didn't Expect This)

The sleeve arrived on a Thursday. Brooke wore it to Friday's practice — a full session in the middle of their summer intensive. The worst-case test.

 

I sat in the waiting area bracing for the same after-practice limp.

 

It didn't come.

 

She walked out normally. She got in the car and started talking about a new skill she'd landed — not about her heels. She didn't mention them once.

 

By the end of that first week, the after-practice limp that had shadowed us for two months was just… gone.

She wears it to every practice now without me even reminding her. It goes on with her leotard like it's part of her routine.

 

And I'm not exaggerating when I say it gave her her summer back.

Now the Other Gym Moms Are Asking Me What I Did

It started in the waiting area.

 

Another mom watched Brooke walk out of practice with no limp and asked me straight out: "Wasn't she struggling with her heels a few weeks ago?"

I told her everything — the growth plate, why summer makes it worse, the sleeve.

 

She ordered one that night. A week later she texted me: "First full week of trainings with zero complaints. I could cry."

 

Now I'm that mom in the gym lobby. Every time I see a girl limping off the floor or sitting out tumbling, I want to walk over and say:

 

"It's not just growing pains — and there's actually something that helps."

How Much Does It Cost?

The ComfortHeel sleeve costs $39.99.

 

To put that in perspective, plenty of gym families have already spent:

 

$300–$500 on custom orthotics that don't even work for a barefoot sport

$60+ on heel cups and inserts that can't be used on the floor

Hundreds in doctor's copays just to be told to "rest", which means falling behind

 

At $39.99, it costs less than a single specialist visit and it's the only thing designed for the exact problem your daughter is dealing with.

ATTENTION! OFFER VALID ONLY ON THIS PAGE

How can I buy TWO Sooftie ComfortHeels for the price of ONE?

To anyone reading this page: We're currently running a “Buy 1, Get 1 FREE” promotion.

 

Thanks to this discount, today's price drops below $20 per unit.

"My daughter is a competitive cheerleader and summer is non-stop — tumbling on hard gym floors for hours. She was limping after every practice and we'd tried everything. She wears the ComfortHeel under her cheer shoes now and the limp is gone. She actually made it through a full two-day competition pain-free."

Sarah M.

Verified Buyer

"My 12-year-old dances five days a week and was waking up with heel pain every morning. The gel cups from the pharmacy were useless, you can't even wear them in ballet shoes. This sleeve is thin enough to wear during class and the difference was almost immediate. Wish I'd found it sooner."

Adam R.

Verified Buyer

"I was skeptical because nothing else had worked for my gymnast. But this wraps the heel perfectly and you can feel it supporting the exact sore spot. She's back to landing her tumbling passes without that little wince every time. If you've got a girl in a high-impact sport, this is a must."

Jessica T.

Verified Buyer

How can I order ComfortHeel and get another one for FREE?

Since thousands of young athletes are still dealing with Sever's disease without a real fix, the Sooftie team is working to make this product accessible to every family.

 

So, even though the retail price is already just $39.99, well below the industry average of $250 to $500 for custom orthotics they wanted to go the extra mile.

 

Anyone who places an order today through the link on this page will receive another ComfortHeel for free.

 

Plus, every order placed today also includes:

✅ Free recovery massage ball – to ease post-practice tension

✅ Free detailed sizing guide – to find your child's exact fit

✅ Free eBook, "Stretching Protocol for Young Athletes" – simple exercises to support recovery

Note: not available on Amazon or eBay

 

You will not find a lower price for the ComfortHeel sleeve.

IN FACT...

 

We're confident you won't find a lower price anywhere for an effective pediatric compression sleeve, this offer is genuinely hard to beat.

Get your ComfortHeel Sleeve today

You Get 30 Days To Try It, Completely Risk-Free!

A great product earns real trust.

 

You'll have a full 30 days to have your child wear ComfortHeel and see for yourself how much it can improve her heel pain, her confidence, and even her performance.

 

And if you're not satisfied, you can return it any time within 30 days for a full refund, no hassle, no delays.

 

You'll also have access to our specialist team, who'll answer any questions by email, fast.

 

Your child's success is our number one priority.

What To Do Next?

All you have to do is click the button below that says "Get your ComfortHeel Sleeve today"

 

From there, you'll place your order and let us know her size and shipping address.

 

Our specialist team is available to help with your order or answer any questions.

 

Order today and finally give her the freedom to play without the pain.

Get your ComfortHeel Sleeve today

Remember why this matters:

Fixing your child's heel pain is about a lot more than just stopping an occasional limp.

 

✅ Gives her the freedom to play without thinking about the pain, and with it, the confidence and excitement for her sport she had forgotten she had.

✅ Reduces the damaging traction on the growth plate during activity

✅ Cuts down limping, stiffness, and frustration after practice

✅ Builds her confidence and with her team

✅ Say goodbye to uncomfortable insoles, rigid orthotics, and other half-measures.

 

And now, with a solution this affordable and a completely risk-free 30-day guarantee, there's no reason to let another season slip by with pain keeping him off the field.

 

Click the button below to order ComfortHeel today with 30% off.

Get your ComfortHeel Sleeve today

Today's Special Offer

Get your ComfortHeel Sleeve today

ADVERTISEMENT DISCLOSURE: This page is an advertisement for Sooftie ComfortHeel and is not a news article, blog, or consumer protection update. 

Privacy Disclosure: We may collect personal information for marketing purposes and will always let you know why we are collecting that information. This site uses cookies for marketing purposes. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Testimonial Disclosure: Testimonials on this page reflect the individual experiences of real customers. Individual results may vary. Any photographs of persons used on this page are models unless otherwise noted.

Medical Disclaimer: The information provided on this page is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as medical advice, nor does it replace professional medical expertise or treatment. If your child has a persistent health issue, consult your pediatrician or an orthopedist. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you read on this page. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Copyright © 2023 ComfortHeel. All Rights Reserved.

Get your ComfortHeel Sleeve today