What is Growth Pain?
Growing pain is a common complaint of children during their transition from childhood to adolescence. Growing pain is typically characterised by the gradual onset of vague, aching pain at the hip, knee or ankle, that is aggravated during and after physical activity. The most common cause of growth pain we see at Langwarrin Sports Medicine Centre is a condition known as Tension Apophysitis.
Tension Apophysitis is a condition caused by the pull of muscles on the bony growth plates which are active during times of growth. Tension apophysitis affects several different areas of the body at varying stages in the growth cycle, these are listed below:
|Site||Common Name||Age of Onset||Fusion|
|Heel||Sever’s Disease||9 – 11||10 – 13|
|Knee||Osgood Schlatter’s||10 – 12||11 – 14|
|Hip||–||13 – 15||16 – 18|
|Buttock||–||15 – 17||19 – 25|
Management of Growth Pain
It is often believed that when a child is experiencing growing pains, they should rest from sports and physical activity. While these conditions will settle with rest in the short term, this will become a source of frustration for the child, and will not provide long term relief of the condition.
Growth-related pain is something physiotherapist’s routinely treat with a high success rate. At Langwarrin Sports Medicine Centre, our physiotherapist’s will complete a thorough assessment of your child’s injury, and provide practical exercises and education to ensure you have an understanding of the condition, and what is required to achieve a positive outcome with regard to your son or daughter’s pain
Written by Alex Balnaves
Book with Alex Balnaves at:
Langwarrin Sports Medicine Centre, Ph: 03 9789 1233
Eramosa Physiotherapy, Ph: 03 5977 6590