Knees

Take care of your knees. My MIL just underwent knee replacement surgery. The doctors say she's doing great but, she faces a long road to recovery.

Bad knees run in her family. My gut tells me it might be partly genetic & partly poor nutrition. MIL, like most of the family is a vegetarian. I've always been told vegans have to be extra careful to get enough proteins & in the right combination.

I'm somewhat concerned for DW. She already complains about sore knees sometimes. She does walk 4-5 days a week but, I'd like to see her do more. When she was a young girl she used to fast a lot. Some of her friends were overweight & that's what they did to lose weight. DW did the same thing even though she's never been overweight in her life. I suspect she might've been a little taller if she had eaten better throughout her adolescence. She's tiny.

DD is a teenager & not a strict vegetarian. She has a good appetite & eats well. She actually has a pretty good grasp of nutrition too. She won't eat at McDonalds or Burger King. Although destined to be on the short side, at 14 she's already taller than her Mom. She does have issues with her arches; her feet are sore a lot. We've been taking her to a physical therapist & he's been trying different orthotic inserts in her shoes. Hopefully we'll figure it out. I'd like to see DD exercise more so she can really stimulate her growth plates.

We've read up on height potential in teenagers and there are four main keys. The first, genetics we can't do anything about. DW is short (4'6") & DD's birth father was around 5'4". The other three are nutrition, sleep, & exercise. DD is a teenager & sleeps plenty. Nutrition is not a problem. The exercise: I definitely would like to see her do more. She does have handweights in her room & she says she does the workouts that are in her Seventeen magazine.

Ultimately I want to get both DD & DW doing a little bit of running. I think it would be a fun thing to do as a family & I enjoy it so much I hope once they try it they'll enjoy it too. Hopefully we'll keep their knees healthy & strong too.