My Child Has Heel Pain

Heel Pain In Children

Is Your Child Suffering With Heel Pain?

Does This Sound Familiar?

Your child is between the ages of 9 and 14 and plays sport. The sport often played is football, rugby or hockey. Shoes and surfaces can vary between synthetic and grass. Your child starts relatively comfortable but by the time the second half comes around they are visually limping and in pain. Another common complaint is when they get out of the car after a training session and they are limping to the house. If this sounds familiar your child could be suffering with Sever’s Disease also known as Calcaneal Apophysitis. .

What Is Sever’s Disease:

Firstly it’s not a disease, it is an inflammatory condition that effects the growth plate in the heel bone (calcaneus). It is also known in the medical world as Calcaneal Apophysitis and it typically effects active growing children between the ages of 9 and 14.

What Causes The Pain In The Heel?

The cause of the pain is usually a combination of the fact that they are growing, they are usually very active, footwear is usually not great (football/rugby boots) and the type of sports that are being played. Genetics and foot function can also contribute to what can cause this condition.

How Can I Help My Child?

Growing can be a stressful time for youngsters, bones tend to grow faster than muscle and tendons leaving them prone to tightness in the soft tissue. Once you ad increased activity, hard grippy surfaces and shoes with a very low heel drop you have a recipe for increased stress to the growth plate and consequent heel pain.

• Footwear should be the first thing to look at! Try and get boots, trainers or shoes with a higher heel drop and more cushioning. A higher heel drop means an increase in the thickness of the heel. The only boots I am aware of with a bigger heel drop are Asics boots however they are becoming increasingly difficult to get in the UK. If you can’t get these then look to add a heel raise. I would highly recommend Firm Heelevators which can be found here.
• Moderate activity and try and give plenty of rest between games/training sessions
• Introduce some gentle stretching for the calf muscles.

How Can We Help?

As Podiatrists we are trained to assess the mechanics of the lower limb. Once we have accurately diagnosed teh condition we can then look at treatment options. Orthoses can be utilised and used for very specific footwear such as boots and/or for broad use across many shoes.

If you have tried the obvious changes discussed, get booked in with one of our experienced podiatrists who treat this condition regularly.