Kids have an entirely different spectrum of injuries that aren’t present in the adult population. As kids grow, immature bone tissue is laid down which represent sites of greater weakness meaning a greater risk of injury to the bone then that of an adult. This means injuries to the hip, knee, ankle, foot, shoulder elbow and spine can all occur at different times depending on age and skeletal maturity. These injuries can often mean time spent away from the sports they enjoy, which can mean they fall behind their peers in athletic development, further increase the risk of injury and effect long term participation in sport. It can also lead to longer term implications such as growth arrest and future injuries in their adult life.
Kids are often dismissed as having “growing pains”. This can be the case however kids often experience pain due to overuse, causing excessive load on a bony attachment and leading to inflammation and damage to the immature bone tissue where they are growing. This can then lead to injuries such as fractures or avulsion fractures, Sever’s disease, Osgood Schlatter’s, Sinding Larsen Johansson Disease, a Pars defect and others.
Kids will often complain of pain with activity on one or both sides which can be intermittent or constant. The site of injury is often tender to touch and rarely painful at night. This is opposed to your traditional “growing pains” which isn’t tender to touch, has a more global pain and can be painful at night. Overuse injuries are often caused by spikes in activity, early sport specialisation, a sustained high volume of intensity of activity, low energy availability, spikes in growth and many other contributing factors.
Clinical diagnosis is often made through exclusion of other more serious pathology. The site of the injury, training volume and load, skeletal maturity, age, sport and many other sports are all taken into account as well as specific orthopaedic tests are used to form a diagnosis and highlight specific contributing factors that might pre-dispose an individual to developing an adolescent related injury.
Treatment will vary between specific injuries but will often include a degree of activity modification/rest, addressing muscular strength and length imbalances, movement re-training, education regarding contributing factors and pain modification. Treatment may also look to address any problems with diet, hydration, sleep, beliefs regarding the injury and stress if relevant.
Adolescent sports injuries are rarely attributed to just one cause and so an in depth assessment and often a wider approach to treatment is needed to address the athlete as a whole rather than the injury specifically.
Sports Rehabilitator and Massage Specialist
This page was written by Alex who has completed the Kids Back 2 Sport assessment.
I highly recommend Donna at Blue Sky. I have found her to be kind, understanding and compassionate. She saw me at short notice for my first appointment with her and she has helped me immensely. Donna is very dedicated to her clients and in helping them recover. Thank you.
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