- Children are not small adults. They require a physiotherapist with paediatric experience.
Treating injuries in children can be straightforward, until it isn’t. I often see on social media someone asking for recommendations for a physiotherapist for their injured child, and people recommending Joe Physio because he treated their knee successfully. When this happens I want to shout “Noooo!”
Would you take your Komodo dragon to a veterinarian who only treats cats and dogs, or would you seek out someone with more specific expertise in exotic animals? I’m guessing the latter. And we should be doing the same with our children.
Children’s bodies can present with unique issues related to growth, neurological development, and hormonal changes to name a few. Paediatric experience is essential in order to thoroughly assess the problem. Check out this story to see just how complicated it can be.
Unfortunately, if you do just go to Joe Physio you won’t even know what they potentially missed, and likely neither will they. This may have consequences down the road.
So do your kids a favour and seek out a paediatric physiotherapist from the beginning. You could be saving them a lot of suffering later in life.
- No, they will not grow out of it.
“Well the doctor said he would outgrow it.” It’s hard not to roll my eyes when parents tell me this. Fortunately, the fact that they are sitting in front of me indicates that they did not believe the doctor. Unfortunately for every parent who brings their child in under these circumstances there are probably a hundred who don’t.
I hear this bad advice with respect to a lot of things such as pigeon toes (also know as in-toeing), delayed development, and asymmetry in the body. Children do not outgrow these issues. In some cases they figure out ways to compensate for them so that the problem appears to go away, and in other cases there is absolutely no apparent change. Either way there will be consequences at some point.
If you see something you feel is not right in your child, it’s best to get it checked out. Addressing it earlier is much better than later.
- No, that injury will not just magically disappear because it’s a kid.
My kids play a lot of sports, so I see kids wipe out and crash into each other a lot. Sometimes there is serious impact but no one ever seems concerned. “Ah, they’re kids. They bounce back.”
Well, they may appear to but that is, in fact, not the case. Their bodies have to absorb all that impact just as much as yours does. “But they don’t complain of pain so they’re just fine,” you say? Also not true.
Kids’ bodies are generally more pliable than ours, so they can absorb more impact than ours before they “break”. But all of that kinetic energy is still wreaking havoc on their bodies. It’s just that they have a bit more means to compensate than we do. They do often complain of pain after a big impact but parents all too frequently brush it off. Also, their complaints of pain don’t last as long because of the resilience I just spoke of.
The problem is that these things have a cumulative effect. They may seem fine until they have a big injury (like a blown out knee when they’re 16) that happens “out of the blue”. All roads lead to Rome. So cut them off at the pass by treating injuries when they occur.
Check out this blog for more details on this subject.
- If in doubt apply the cringe test.
“But how do I know when my child actually needs treatment? They fall down all the time. “ This is another common question I get. I can relate. My son looks like the abominable snowman after a hockey game. My simple answer is this – apply the cringe test.
Two kids crash into each other and we go, “oooh.” No big deal. Then two kids crash into each other and we all pull our legs up towards our chests, cover our heads, suck in our breath and visibly cringe. You know what I’m talking about. That would be a positive cringe test. And that’s a good indicator that you should seek treatment for your child. It may only require one or two treatments but that little bit of intervention can prevent a big injury later.
- If your child is injury prone there is a reason.
“My kid is just injury prone. It’s normal for her.” Hmmm…..I beg to differ. If your child is repeatedly getting injured there is a reason for it. Granted, some are just pure daredevils who are always putting themselves in high-risk situations, but the majority of “injury prone” kids do not do this. These are the kids who always get hurt doing things that other kids do all the time without incident.
I believe this happens due to an overall lack of stability. Lack of stability can be the result of previous injury that has gone untreated (see above), or just general low activity levels in the stabilizing musculature. Either way these things are treatable. There is no need for your child to keep injuring themselves. And it is not normal.
- Infants require physiotherapy sometimes.
Sometimes my clients do a double take when they see someone leaving the clinic with a baby. “You treat infants? Why?”
Sometimes babies are born with tightness in different areas of the body. This may be due to position in utero or other factors like a multiple birth. It is important that this issue be addressed early or it can affect things like feeding and overall development. Infants need hands-on treatment just like adults do in order to address asymmetry and imbalances in the body. If you would like to know how to do a quick screening of your infant for potential concerns click here.
I sometimes see kids, and even adults, with issues that came from infancy that were never addressed fully when they were babies. Trust me, it’s a lot easier (and cheaper) to treat these things when they are little.
- Growing pains can be treated.
There are two things people generally don’t know about growing pains. One is that they can start very young. My daughter’s started when she was about three years old. The second thing is that they can be treated and even prevented from recurring. Yes, there is more you can do than just give pain relief medication and a hot pack.
The issue is that the bone growth occurs much more rapidly than the lengthening of the muscles. This results in the muscles becoming relatively short and very tight. Simple stretching doesn’t address the problem as it is not the whole muscle that gets tight, but rather specific areas. The only way to address this with specificity is to get your hands in there, find where it’s tight, and release it. Doing this proactively at times of rapid growth can avoid those middle of the night wake-up calls from a child screaming in pain. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who has experienced that. Someone pass the coffee please.