 Newsletter
– Fall 2004
Are Your Kids Overdoing Sports?
Help Your Child to Avoid Overuse Injuries
Does
Someone in Your Household Have Diabetes?
It’s True! Your Feet Can Hurt Your Back!
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Are
Your Kids Overdoing Sports?
Fall means more than “back to school” for kids: it’s
also the time when sports teams get back into action. Many young
people are involved in several sports each season. It’s
not uncommon for one child to attend practices for two different
sports on the same afternoon.
If
your children are involved in sports activities – especially
those that are hard on their feet such as soccer, basketball,
track and football – it’s important that you be on
the lookout for “overuse injuries.” The bones, ligaments,
and tendons in kids’ feet and ankles aren’t fully
developed yet, and damage can occur when they are stressed from
hours of sports participation.
Problems
that can occur when kids’ feet take a beating include:
Calcaneal
apophysitis – an inflammation of the heel’s
growth plate due to muscle strain and repetitive stress
Achilles
tendonitis – an inflammation of the tendon connecting
the heel bone to the calf muscle
Tendo-Achilles
bursitis – an inflammation of the fluid-filled sac located
between the Achilles tendon and the heel bone
Plantar
fasciitis – an inflammation of the band of tissue that
runs along the bottom of the foot from the heel to the toes
Stress
fractures – hairline breaks resulting from repeated stress
on the bone
Some
kids will insist on continuing to play their sport even when they’re
in pain. Parents should never allow this to happen! Continuing
to play with an injury can result in problems that may plague
your child into adulthood.
Pain
is NEVER normal in a child’s foot or ankle! Any pain that
lasts more than a few days, or that is severe enough to limit
the child’s walking, should be evaluated in our office.
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Help
Your Child to Avoid Overuse Injuries
• Provide the correct shoe for each type of sport. Basketball
shoes will protect the feet and ankles in the side to side motions
of that sport, while running shoes cushion and stabilize the foot
from repeated pounding on a track.
• NEVER allow a child to use hand-me-down shoes!
• Make sure shoes are wellconstructed and support the foot
adequately. Have them professionally fitted.
• Limit wearing of cleated shoes to the time actually spent
on the field. These shoes are not supportive, and cleats may cause
increased pressure on soles of the feet.
• Avoid activities that are beyond your child’s ability.
• If your child is overweight, help him or her to shed pounds.
Extra weight puts additional stress on the feet.
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Does
Someone in Your Household Have Diabetes?
An estimated 18.2 million Americans have diabetes, according to
the American Diabetes Association. The effects of this disease
can cause severe problems in the feet of diabetes patients.
November
is American Diabetes Month…a good time to remind any family
members with this disease that good foot care must be a part of
their overall treatment regimen. Circulatory and nerve damage
problems caused by diabetes can leave patients with serious foot
ulcers and other conditions that, left untreated, can result in
amputation. In fact, about 82,000 lower-limb amputations are performed
each year among people with diabetes.
Help
keep your family members on their feet! Anyone with diabetes should
inspect their feet daily, and have them checked in our office
at least once a year… more often if poor blood flow to the
foot or nerve damage is present.
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It’s
True! Your Feet Can Hurt Your Back!
If your lower back has been hurting, and you don’t remember
doing anything that would have injured it, the source of your
pain could be your feet!
Foot
pain is something that many folks just try to ignore. After all,
don’t everyone’s feet hurt now and then? But if foot
pain is something that has been with you for quite awhile, it
could be causing problems in your ankles, knees, hips, and even
your back.
That
old song, “the leg bone’s connected to the thigh bone...the
thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone” tells the
whole story. Our bodies are like a chain, with one link, or bone,
connecting at the joint to another link. Think about what would
happen if the first link in the chain was out of position. The
point at which it meets the next link would eventually overstress
the link and adversely affect the entire chain.
That’s
what happens when we have foot pain. If the normal way of walking
is painful, we instinctively change our walking pattern. Perhaps
we have arthritis, and our big toe joint hurts. So, we change
our gait to avoid bending the joint when we walk. But changing
our gait will change the mechanics of our ankle joint, eventually
causing pain there. This
change in our walking pattern can also affect the whole chain
of our lower body... from the ankle, to the knee, to the hip,
and then to the lower back.
When
foot pain or a foot deformity causes us to change the way we walk,
it changes the way that the bones of all of those other joints
move with each other. Cartilage in the joints can wear down, ligaments
and tendons can be stressed beyond their normal range, and arthritis
can set in.
If
your feet aren’t working right, don’t ignore them!
Make an appointment with our office for an evaluation. Your back
(and knees and hips) will thank you!
This information was developed by the American College of
Foot and Ankle Surgeons.
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