From foot deformities to typical sports injuries, children can have just as much trouble with their feet as adults, and according to Dr. Aaron Solomon at Advanced Foot Care, early treatment is the key to relief.
Dr. Aaron Solomon“The most common pediatric ailment we deal with on a daily basis is heel pain,” Solomon shared, noting the technical term is calcaneal apophysitis. “It’s a growth bone in the back of the heel that gets inflamed.”
Also called Sever’s disease by pediatricians, calcaneal apophysitis is an ailment that can cause children who play sports such as soccer, baseball or basketball to end up hobbling over to mom and dad after a game or practice with terrible foot pain.
“They rest and their foot gets better, so then they go in to play again, but the pain returns,” Solomon said, adding that patients who report symptoms such as a recurrence of pain and detecting a tenderness in the heel are diagnosed with calcaneal apophysitis. “We treat it first by, most importantly, resting and letting the inflammation resolve. We don’t give an antinflammatory because we want to avoid medication if we can help it, and rest is the best way to allow any damage to resolve itself.”
In severe circumstances, Solomon said that a cast or walking boot may be used to give adequate rest to the foot.