Paediatric Conditions

Treating Paediatric Conditions

If your child or adolescent is experiencing pain due to a recent injury or an ongoing condition our Sports Medicine team has experience in the diagnosis and management of conditions specific to childhood and adolescence.

There are injuries and conditions that only affect children and adolescents such as bony avulsion injuries, growth plate injuries and apophysitis (inflammation on or around growth plates).

There are a number of causes for this including:

Growth spurts change the body shape and size which increase the forces across bones and joints making them more susceptible to injuries
Poor sports training / technique or inadequate practice and insufficient warm-up exercises before sport.

During your appointment you can expect the following:

History taking where you will be asked several questions related to your child or adolescents' pain or injury.

The type of questions you can expect during this consultation include:

History of the pain, including location, severity, referred pain, things that make the pain worse or better.
Previous related injuries
Sporting activities
Past medical history including any medications
Previous treatments

A physical examination of your child’s painful region as well as other areas of the body if indicated.

If needed to help reach a diagnosis, investigations may be required such as x-rays, MRIs or blood tests.

A diagnosis with explanation in laymans terms (non-medical language that is easy to understand)

A management plan will then be developed in conjunction with the patient.

Management may consist of:

education of the condition and why it occurred
advice on what to do and what to avoid making the condition worse
exercise programs
injections
return to sport or activity programs
if required referral to another health professional (physio, exercise physiologist)

Below is a list of some of the common conditions seen in children and adolescents:

Sever’s disease (heel pain)
Osgood Schlatter’s disease (knee pain)
Slipped capital femoral epiphysis (groin/hip pain)
Pars defect (back)

It is recommended you make an appointment with an SEM Physician or Physiotherapist as soon as your child or adolescent is injured or experiencing pain so they can immediately diagnose the cause of the problem and provide you with accurate management to help with your childs' symptoms as soon as possible.