Many children whether partaking in sport or not can suffer with aches and pain in their legs and feet. Paul has extensive experience working with children from walking age onwards. If your child partakes in sporting activities then the assessment will be exactly the same as for the adult athlete. Please refer to our athlete assessment section here->
Children’s Assessments
“I took my son to see Paul after he was reommended by a family friend. My boy who is a keen footballer was complaining of pain in both his heels. Paul quickly diagnosed the problem and with some exercises and insoles, my son was pain free and playing again in 3 weeks.”
Jan (concerned mum)
Many parents experience the worry and anguish of seeing their young ones in pain as they grow. This is often labelled by the medical profession as ‘growing pains’ and is is discounted as a minor inconvenience, that needs to be tolerated. Seeing your child in pain and not being able to help can be a heartbreaking experience. However there are simple things that can be addressed to quickly improve the wellbeing of your little loved one.
Growing pains affecting a child, particularly the knees, feet or ankles should not be ignored. 99% of the time it is nothing serious and is due to normal developmental changes that occur in us all as we grow. However they are usually an indicator that mechanical dysfunction such as tight muscle groups or flat feet might exist. A simple assessment, can quickly identify any problem and is usually simple to rectify.
When assessing a young child Paul will make sure that there are no major problems with development of joints and bones from the hip down. It is very rare that this occurs but the earlier problems are identified the better. Hip flexion, rotation and range of movement will be assessed as well as movements around the knee, foot and ankle. Flexibility of muscle groups will also be checked, as will developmental markers.
Paul has children himself and is used to the fact that particularly young children can be frightened when in a clinical setting. Paul will make it a fun experience for the child, whilst at the same time fully explaining to parents what is being looked for and what issues if any, exist.
Treatment of young children is usally very easy and consists of some simple exercises for the parents to do with their young one , combined with special little insert orthotics for their shoes. Growing pains will usually subside very quickly after treatment.