Kids Foot pain – Growing Pain is not a diagnosis!

It’s common for parents who take their children with foot or leg pain to a practitioner that the pain is simply growing pains and that the only thing that can be done is to wait for the child to grow out of this pain.

No time limit is given for this pain. No solution just wait till the child grows and the pain will somehow go away by itself, time for this? Months or maybe years ! With a vague diagnosis of “growing pains”

Kids DO NOT need to wait to grow out of growing pains! There is definitely treatment and more importantly a more Rigourous reasoning for many kids than simply the fact that kids bones are growing!

We need kids to develop a love for activity so that they grow into adults who have a positive outlook on this. Let’s face it there are lots of adults out there who could do with a more active lifestyle.

If like us it’s important to you as a parent that your kids stay happy healthy and active, and your child has pain - then we would LOVE to be able to help!

There are multiple ways kids can be assisted with lower leg, foot or ankle pain. Our team help parents and kids every single day with this pain.

Video Transcript

So, as a parent of a newborn or a little kid, it can be super confusing. There's stacks for us to know. One of the really confusing things that lots of parents ask me about is when do you need to start worrying about your kids’ feet? Is there a magical age? Well, first of all no, there's actually probably not. In this video, I'm going to run through a little bit of history about kids’ feet and how they develop, and then I'm going to talk to you about some really simple things that you can look for to make sure that your kids develop properly. But also, if they present with these signs or symptoms, you know to take them to see a qualified podiatrist and get some answers or some help straight away.

So, some brief history of how kids’ feet develop. When kids are born, they're really cute, chubby little feet. Around about the age of seven or nine is when we expect kids’ bones to ossify or harden and develop an arch. So, before the age of seven or nine, it' pretty normal for kids to have flat feet. So, you don't have to worry about flat feet until around about seven or nine. However, to make things tricky, because that's what we like to do to you parents out there, there's one caveat. And that is, if your child has flat feet and they have one of the following signs or symptoms, even before the age of seven, you should take them to see a very well-qualified foot doctor podiatrist that deals with children.

The first one is pain. Your child should never have pain in their feet. I
personally don't believe in growing pains, and there's a great video that I've done on exactly why I don't believe in growing pains. You can check it out in the link below. But no child should have pain in their feet or while they're growing.

The next sign or symptom that you should be worried about is if your child trips, falls or is clumsy or, often said by Dads to me in kind of whispering: they're a little bit unco. If they're any of those things guess what? Again, you should take them to see a qualified podiatrist who has experience dealing with kids. Again, we've got a video talking about why that happens and what you can help do about that, so check out the link below.

Next, we talk about not wanting to do activity. If you've got pain in your feet or legs and often as kids we don't know how to express that or how do tell Mum and Dad that, and we often just find kids baulk or stop doing activity, so they might not want to walk with you at the end of the picnic when you guys are going for a long walk as a family, or they might not want to join their brothers and sisters in playing soccer in the backyard or at pre-school playing with the other kids. If they complain about that, want to be put in a shopping trolley, those sorts of things are all signs that there may be something else going on, and you should see a qualified podiatrist.

Now they're the signs and symptoms that you should look for if your child has problems. Growing pains or pain in their feet, tripping, falling clumsy, complaining about activity, any of those things, take them to see someone like me, a qualified podiatrist, a foot doctor who sees stacks of kids. That's right.

Again, we've got oodles of videos with links down below talking all about kids feet. Everything from how to choose the right school shoe, to choosing the right school shoe size, to heel pain, to growing pains and everything in between.

So, join me there and check it out. If you've got a question, post down below and we will get back to you. Remember, let's keep our kids happy, healthy and active.

Bye for now.

Do all kids with flat feet need orthotics by Dr Brenden Brown – Podiatrist

Blog, Growing pains

Transcript
No, not all kids with flat feet actually do need orthotics.

I think that it's important to understand that many flat feet will resolve by the age of approximately nine in most kids.

When I see kids with flat feet, I only use orthotics if they've got a structural problem that I don't think will actually resolve naturally by itself.

The other reason I use orthotics is if the kid has flat feet, and they have some form of pain in their foot, ankle, or lower limb.

I think that's when it's important to actually see a foot doctor or a podiatrist, who actually has stacks and stacks of experience helping kids out of pain and back into activity.

Growing Pains- More than just pain from growing – A case study

Blog, Growing pains, Kids Feet

Growing Pains- More than just pain from growing – A case study

Sam is 10-years-old. He’s a great kid who loves being active, but there’s a problem and it’s getting worse. Sam plays football in winter and, in summer, he’s a cricket fanatic. Apart from these regular sports he’s running about at school and is, yes your average Aussie kid!

Sam’s mum and dad brought him into A Step Ahead Foot + Ankle Care because, despite being a very happy and active kid, Sam is waking up a couple of nights a week with pain in his lower legs. When he wakes he wants his mum to rub his legs because they ache and are sore. Sam’s mum Beth has used heat packs and paracetamol which does take the pain away after a while but, as Beth says, “They aren’t fixing the cause”.

A key factor is that fact Sam’s parents recognised that the pain sometimes came on in the night after Sam had quite active days, like sports days or family activities with lots of walking.

Visiting the GP, Physio and Dr Google

Sam’s parents took their son to a GP who sent them to see a Physiotherapist. While the physio was nice and showed Sam some stretching and did a couple of massages, these again helped at the time but didn’t stop the problem from coming back. After chatting to the GP their opinion was that this was “Just growing pains”—something Sam would have to get used to, and that he would simply “Grow out of it”. Frustrated with a fantastic but upset little boy, Sam’s parents felt they needed another opinion.

Sam’s mum Beth jumped onto Dr Google and found herself even more confused. Some parents were recommending vitamin supplements, others recommended oils and others suggested all kinds of home remedies. She then found herself on Facebook asking other parents for help. This is where a friend of Beth’s recommended our practitioners at A Step Ahead Foot and Ankle Care.

Finally some answers

When our practitioners assessed Sam it became pretty clear there was more than just some kind of phantom pain going on. We undertook a detailed walk and run assessment, along with some measurements and testing on Sam’s muscles. Nothing was invasive and everything we do is done in a fun, friendly and non-confronting environment. After a short while we established that Sam’s feet were rolling in a lot and his arches where a little flat. In essence Sam had pretty poor foot posture. What this meant is that the muscles in Sam’s lower legs were over working to try and give his poor foot posture support.

This meant that a big day on his feet, like a family outing, a busy day at school or doing sports caused his muscles to work even harder. This led to them getting sore, not necessarily at the time of the injury, mostly at night several hours after the muscles had rested.

Helping fight “growing pains”

To help Sam we gave him a custom-made pair of orthotic insoles. These are made from a soft material so are very comfortable to wear but provided support for the rolling of his ankle. We took a 3D scan of Sam’s foot and video recorded his walking patterns using our specialised assessment software. The orthotics are then designed using our computer-aided design software. Next step is to make the orthotics, which is done in our on-site Orthotic laboratory by our technicians and overseen by our podiatrist.

After fitting his new orthotics into a new pair of runners that we recommended, Sam headed on his way feeling comfortable to return in a couple of weeks. We prescribed some stretching to work with his orthoses and suggested that we may need to follow this up with a specialised massage to relax his muscles as his orthoses took over and began doing their job.

Pain free!

A couple of weeks later a very relieved set of parents and Sam returned to our clinic. In a little over two weeks the orthoses had started to do their thing. Sam had only had pain in his legs once since starting to wear his orthoses and this was after a very big day, his school athletics carnival! After only a couple of weeks we expected this to decrease so we asked them to return in another month at which time they reported Sam to be pain free!! Sam’s parents also reported that he was much more comfortable at sport as well. They were overjoyed; they had their happy, healthy little boy back!

Growing pains ARE TREATABLE in most cases. While many well-meaning health practitioners may say you have to wait and outgrow growing pains, there are alternatives. Our practitioners have had the pleasure of helping many kids with this same problem. It’s what we love to do! Helping kids become pain free, happy, healthy and active is a privilege. If you would like to help your little one to become pain free, please give our helpful reception team a call on +61 9673 2987 or 4732 2007. You can also see find us on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/podiatristsydney

Sometimes practitioners get it wrong: Heel pain a treatment gone wrong

Blog, Growing pains, Heel Pain, Kids Feet, Sports Care

How come my child’s heel pain isn’t getting better ….

Sometimes practitioners get it wrong: Heel pain a treatment gone wrong - 1

Soccer, rugby league and Netball all culprits for creating heel pain in kids if mixed with poor foot posture and growth spurts

“He had heel pain last year and now it’s back. They have NO idea what it is. They did an x-ray and it’s not Severs. The physio massaged his calves and it helped for a few weeks but it’s not better. It’s almost been 6 months. We had to halve how much sport he does now and he hates it. As soon as he starts running or playing a game, it comes on. He describes a tight feeling when he walks too”

Very honestly, these were the exact words that came from a frustrated and concerned mum, paired with an equally frustrated 13 year old boy, just before lunchtime today. This family traveled across the city to see us, which is not uncommon but it must be frustrating.

The tragedy in these words is that they’re NOT uncommon. At least a few times a week I hear grumblings from frustrated parents – and they most definitely have a right to be frustrated! – because they’ve seen various practitioners without a real diagnosis and just when something has been suspected, imaging has gone and ruled it out and we’re back at square one. Or are we?

The matter of the fact is: People make mistakes. Practitioners make mistakes. Radiographers make mistakes. We’re human! It’s going to happen.

I feel like I could host a conference discussing the amount of times I’ve been handed an xray telling me that there is nothing wrong with my patient that currently sits in front of me in AGONIZING pain!

If it doesn’t sound right, you better believe that it’s not. Let me emphasis: pain does NOT happen for no reason, and no amount of negative radio-graphs is going to magically fix your very real pain.

Sometimes practitioners get it wrong: Heel pain a treatment gone wrong - 2

Kids stay happy and healthy and active – Kids should play sport PAIN FREE!

So then, WHY does this happen?

There can be a variety of reasons, and I’m going to give you the very real uncensored version that other practitioners may get annoyed at me for.

• Referrers can order the wrong TYPE of imagine study. If you’ve damaged a muscle, ligament, tendon or any soft tissue, your x-ray will show you are perfectly fine! Yep, go over there and sit your torn Achilles tendon down because you’re fine to go run that marathon. (Please DONT we are kidding)

• Radiographers are very HUMAN and can miss things. Some are likely to have seen more of a certain condition, or be more familiar with an area of the body, and so some may pick up or recognise things that others miss. And you can’t blame them – the body is composed of an extraordinary amount of bone and soft tissue and any expectation for every single person to be a scholarly expert on every single part is drastically unrealistic.

• Things CHANGE over time. Your imaging from a few months ago is a picture of what is happening in your foot a few months ago. Since that time, some tissues may have gotten better, some tissues may have gotten worse, and some ones may now be damaged that weren’t before!

Be assured:

There is NOTHING wrong with wanting a second opinion and getting a referral for another ultrasound or X-ray
There is NOTHING wrong with re-imaging if you feel that your injury has changed. And if you’re having pain but you’re being told there’s nothing wrong, you have EVERY right to be frustrated!
You SHOULD get a second opinion! or a third even if you are not getting the answers you need.
There is increasing evidence that we need to look past radiology reports and look at clinical symptoms

So what do you do next?

Your child should not have to play sport in pain, we can happily tell you that we work with kids to get them back to happy healthy and active every day. Our team will work with your child to develop a detailed care plan, this of course after a thorough assessment of their run + walk patterns; including video analysis. we will examine foot wear and make recommendation and look at the damaged soft tissue and assess what is the best way to rehabilitate this back to health! They may require a soft pliable orthotic for inside their shoes to wear while playing (just like our patients that are international level athletes!)

One of the delightful things about treating kids is seeing them return smiling and back to playing the sport they love!

And for all those wondering.. Yes our little champion from this morning did have Severs 😉

A Step Ahead Foot + Ankle care
Penrith, St Marys and soon to come to a suburb near you!

A Step Ahead Foot and Ankle care have founded “My Kids Foot Doctor” a clinic specifically geared towards treating Kids feet. We see dozens of kids a day, unlike other practitioners who see your Grandma’s toe nails and the occasional kid we see these balls of fun all day every day.

About our clinics

Sometimes practitioners get it wrong: Heel pain a treatment gone wrong - 3

Our team see dozens of kids from across Sydney every day

Our clinics are set up with kids in mind we have big toy boxes, TV’s coloring in and lucky dip boxes. Our practitioners are the kind that sit on the ground and chat to your child, who laugh, may wear silly glasses and love handing out chocolate WE LOVE SEEING KIDS!
What does this mean? It means we have built up an enormous amount of experience with kids because we get to see them ALL the time! If we can help you with your little one, if you have a nagging doubt or worry please call our helpful team on 96732987 we’d love to help!

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Kids Foot pain - Growing Pain is not a diagnosis!

GROWING PAIN CALCULATOR

Video Transcript

ABOUT DR BRENDEN BROWN

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Do all kids with flat feet need orthotics by Dr Brenden Brown - Podiatrist