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- Why kids get injured
What causes most childhood sports injuries?
Most child and teenage sports injuries that do not involve a collision or fall, usually occur when children exceed the current capacity of the muscles, tendons, or bones. They occur when what they do exceeds what they have trained for, or the body’s capacity to do that amount of activity has dropped due to factors like poor sleep, nutrition, or illness.
- Parent Guide
Are injuries caused by doing too much?
We can all recognise that if we tried to run a marathon without training or went to the gym 7 days a week after an absence of many months, we would be asking for trouble. Children are just the same. They need time for their body to adapt to what they do.
How do I know if my child is doing too much?
Think of a child’s energy like a phone battery or fuel tank. When it’s full, they’re unstoppable. But growth spurts, busy sports schedules, poor sleep, illness, stress, or under-eating can drain that energy fast. This often shows up as aches, sore throats, moodiness, lack of motivation, or irregular periods in girls. If they seem run down, ease off the intensity and focus on technique, or better yet, skip training and recharge with an early night or a relaxing movie at home.
Do growth spurts cause injuries in children?
Children are more vulnerable to injury during growth spurts. It takes time to adjust to longer limbs and they become less coordinated for a time. Patience is key in giving them time to adapt to their body and learn how to move with longer, stronger limbs. Growth also creates greater tension and compression at the site where the muscle attaches via a tendon to the bone. A sudden spike in activity can exceed the capacity of the tendon attachment to the bone and causes irritation of the growth plate and soft tissues. This results in pain local to the point of attachment of the tendon, (not the tendon itself) and is aggravated when they run, jump and hopping and settles with rest. These injuries are known as an apophysitis.
Heel Pain
Where the Achilles tendon attaches to the heel bone. This is called Sever’s. Download the e-book
Knee Pain
Just below the kneecap where the quadriceps muscle attaches to the top of the shin bone. This is called Osgood Schlatter’s and results in pain on jumping, running, kicking, squatting and kneeling. They often get a small swelling over the attachment from the repeated traction forces. Download the e-book
Do children get stress fractures?
It is not uncommon for children to get a bone stress injury (often called a stress fracture), especially during the big adolescent growth spurt when bones get longer, and yet for a short time, the bone is not as strong or able to tolerate sudden changes in activity. Bone stress injuries are the most common cause of low back pain in sporty children, especially in those who do repetitive sports involving arching the lower back like bowling in cricket, tennis serving, gymnastics and kicking a ball.
The body is clever. In response to a sudden change or spike in activity, the bone gets “bruised” and recognises it needs to make itself stronger. But that process takes a few weeks. During that time, the new, immature bone is more vulnerable to injury. The child may experience intermittent, niggly back pain, stiffness or an ache on activity, but it quickly settles when they stop. Provided it has time to do so, the bone adapts to the new activity level and the bone bruise settles in 2-6 weeks.
If the pain is ignored, and the bone does not have the chance to adapt, it may develop a small hair line crack in the outer surface of the bone. These are not serious but do require a period of rest and rehabilitation often lasting 4 months. The sooner, we identify the bone is being “stressed” beyond its capacity, the less chance of a stress fracture occurring and the misery of months out.
- Low Back Pain
Any sporty child with low back pain, should not play with pain and rest for 2 weeks. If their pain recurs, they need assessing by a healthcare professional.
There are many other causes of pain in children, so it is essential to get an assessment from a healthcare professional who has the necessary training to accurately diagnose your child and give them the right advice.
