With winter sport season approaching many kids will be dusting off their soccer, footy or netball gear ahead of starting a new season. Exercise is fun and is important part of development but can also be cause of many painful foot and lower limb conditions. Many painful conditions associated with sports occur as a result of injury or overuse. These may include a painful heel condition often seen in active kids between the ages of 8 and 12. The condition is called calcaneal apophysitis and when diagnosed and treated correctly can be very short lived. Another common cause of pain in active kids is overuse of certain muscles and tendons due to poor foot and leg position. Muscle and tendons need to work harder when strength is reduced or hypermobility of joints exists. This can lead to growing pains, muscular pains and inflammatory conditions at the bone and tendon junction.

More serious conditions such as bone oedema and stress fractures must be ruled out when treating active kids.

Some forms of podiatric treatment may include immobilisation, strengthening exercises, foot posture as well as changing footwear.

The experienced team at Sure Step Podiatry pride themselves on giving each child a thorough physical and functional examination prior to formulating a management and treatment plan. We use only the latest evidence based treatment regimens.

If you child develops pain on a regular basis associated with physical activity, or has trouble with recovering from injury they should have a thorough assessment by one of our expert podiatrists.