Child Athletes and Foot Problems

We are seeing a much higher level of performance expectation in sports from younger and younger children.

This can have severe problems later in life as the stress and impact, especially of repetitive movements, can affect bones that are growing and much softer and more pliable.

If you have a child in a sport, ask them how their feet feel. Pay attention to limping on the field of play or stumbling in that this can be an indicator of injury the child does not want to admit to, in order to keep playing. Time to heal is so important in a child's active life. And changing the demands on the body to allow a complete development.

The intricacies and demands on the human foot is absolutely amazing. Some of the smallest bones are expected to take the most abuse, ss well as intricate muscles and tendons.

Tearing or damaging these are very probable in competitive sports. Bringing us again back to time as a necessary component to healing. Unfortunately this higher level of competitiveness is encouraging parents and child athletes to do damage over a game that will be forgotten in a few days; whereas the damage may be for life.

It is not recommended to stretch and pull joints, tendons or muscles if they feel damaged. The trauma to that area creates tightness that can be further damaged if it is not given the time to relax.

Diagnosing foot pain should always be done by a doctor because of so many working elements in the foot.