Instead of having a night out and leaving your kids home with a babysitter, how about switching that around? Take your children to Kids’ Nite Out at the Wheat Ridge Recreation Center and enjoy having the house all to yourselves! Your kids can learn some basics of basketball, swimming, or dancing, or have fun playing dodgeball and other games in a safe, supervised environment any Friday night during the school year. Keep watch, though. If your child is going through a growth spurt, the impact of a new activity could lead to Sever’s disease.
This condition occurs when tight tendons pull on your child’s heel bone, damaging the tender cartilage inside and causing pain at the back of the heel. It usually occurs in early adolescence, and mainly in children who are very active. It’s hard when children can’t play the sports they love, but there is a little lull in school sports now between fall soccer and winter basketball. This is the perfect time to focus on getting their feet back in shape. Here are some tips to treat the symptoms at home—or even help prevent them.
First, your child needs to lessen or avoid the activity that causes pain. This takes the pressure off the heel bone and the tendons to let them heal. During this time, you can try icing for 20 minutes a few times a day to relieve any swelling and discomfort, and elevating the foot as much as possible as well.
Your child can also do stretches to condition the hamstring and calf muscles, and loosen up the Achilles tendon. Have him or her sit on the floor with an elastic band looped taut around a table leg and the top of the foot. He or she should slowly pull the toe toward the body and then point it away 15 times, repeating 3 times with each leg, and doing the entire set 2 or 3 times a day. Continuing these even after the Sever’s disease has healed can help prevent it from recurring.
We can show you other stretches for these tissues and for the shins as well. Put your child’s feet in good hands. Give Rocky Mountain Foot & Ankle Center in Wheat Ridge, Golden, Evergreen, or Granby, CO a call at (303) 423-2520, or request an appointment on our website.
Photo Credit: Daniel St.Pierre via FreeDigitalPhotos.net
