Foot, ankle and knee pain in children
It has long been stated that children are not small adults and in the context of healthcare and orthopaedic medicine this is correct on both a physical level and a cognitive level.
The concept of ‘growing pains’ unfortunately creates an acceptance that having mechanical pain is acceptable and that time will resolve these issues.
One of the common pieces of advice is to rest and although reducing activity, and at times stopping certain types of activity is necessary, these measures also need to combine other key elements of rehabilitation to ensure that the future return to sport is at the forefront of the management plan.
Active rest and where possible flexibility and strength work are crucial pieces of the jigsaw and need to be built into the intervention strategy.
There are so many factors to assess in our youngsters and young adults which cover their biomechanical make up and skeletal development to how they move and load their tissues.
There are a number of usual suspects within the developing age groups but it is crucial to assess these risk factors alongside the level of load (activity) that our youngsters and young adults are exposing their bodies to.
How the activity week is structured is fundamental to managing injury risk and this is a component part of the initial assessment with children and young adults when they are screened at Podiatric Rx.
Increasingly the children and young adult services at the bigger private hospitals are being removed which creates significant access problems to parents seeking expert opinion from clinicians that have been involved in this age group. Essentially this means that those under 18 years of age can not be seen at major private hospitals for their musculoskeletal complaints.
Mark provides expert opinion across the majority of his units at Pure Sports Medicine in London, 22 George Road Edgbaston, Halo Physiotherapy in Kenilworth and Tudor Physiotherapy in Stratford on Avon for this age group and has worked in lower limb and foot and ankle injury specialist units for many years in his role of Clinical Lead in Podiatry at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham.
The main focus for Mark with this age group is their skeletal profile such as foot position, ankle flexibility, hamstring range and ankle control.
This is all part of the structural screen, biomechanical assessment and leads into gait analysis to see how the structural and control findings link to how the child / young adult moves.
If your child has mechanical pain during weight bearing activities and / or sporting activities and you have any concerns in regard to their lower limb structure / function and foot position then please book in and we can provide a thorough clinical assessment of the key factors above and map out a robust plan of action to resolve the presenting issues.
Tagged as: Children, Foot and ankle
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