It's winter in New Zealand and our young athletes start playing netball. The netball grounds are fully occupied every Saturday morning with the next generation of Silver Ferns.
A very common problem is painful heels and knees. The pain often results in limping and not being able to finish the game.
Young bones have "soft" growth centres where they grow from. Jumping on concrete jars these soft growth centres and causes pain. Most of the time there isn't one particular hard landing or knock that initiates this pain, usually it just comes on as a result of extended playing time.
Tournaments are a lot of fun, but with multiple games in a day or over a weekend young bones can get over exposed to repetitive forces which makes them sore.
The best thing to do is rest, don't try to play through pain! These two common pains (knee and heel) are caused by irritation to the growth plate have very medical sounding names. If you want to know more you should consult a Podiatrist. Foot Mechanics Podiatry have clinics around New Zealand if you need more help. You can read what they have to say about heel pain in kids by clicking the link. For knee pain in kids we found some good information at the Sports Injury Clinic here.
Our orthotics will help relieve the heel pain while your child is walking around after netball and at school. Orthotics won't "fix" the problem, but they do help relieve pain. As your child grows the "soft growth centres" on the bones firm up and the problem is self governing. There is no long term damage done to the bones from this pain as long as you allow your kids to rest and give them some pain relieve. The Footlogics Sport and Footlogics Comfort are both suitable for heel pain in children. If your child is younger or has particularly small feet then try the Footlogics Kids Orthotics. Fitting guides will help you get the right size for your child and can be found under the "sizing tab" on each product page.
