Hi there, I did a quick search, didn't find anything useful... Point me in the right direction if this has been discussed before? ;)

I find it very awkward to bar frets with my pinky - it can hurt, and I find that the 2nd string is in the groove by my knuckle, so I can't always get great pressure on it. As I'm normally only playing two notes on adjacent strings, I use the pinky to fret the higher string & 3rd finger to fret the lower string. Is this a bad practice, should I work on barring with my pinky? Does anybody else have this problem, or play with the 3rd & pinky?

i would work on it, but dont hurt yourself. you should never hurt when playing, but muscle memory and strength can feel very awkward in development.
if it is bothering you that much buy of those hand grip exercisers that they sell at most music stores. thats how i got my hand strength up when i was first starting.