Help!? What could this pain be?

[mariposamama]

Ugh. My 5 year old daughter is saying her foot hurts. It is the outer/middle portion of her foot. Doesn't hurt when normal activities, but hurts if she pushes on it or points her toes and after practicing handstands to bridges, back walkovers. Any ideas? No known injury to her foot, though she did hit her baby toe on a mat when doing a front walkover on Tuesday at practice.

Any ideas? I was reading online, but that freaked me out. Worst seems to be a fracture of the 5th metatarsal (possibly a Jone's fracture).

There is no swelling, redness or bruising at all. And you have to press hard at the base of that long bone on outside of the foot to recreate the pain.

[Aussie_coach]

It doesn't seem like a major injury but as far as any kind of injury and gymnastics is concerned, check it out by a doctor. There are two problems for gymnasts when it comes to injuries. The first is that the type of work they do will often make the injury far worse. A normal kid who hurts themselves will maybe limp around for a while and it will naturally heal. A gymnasts will run on it, jump on it, land on it, twist around and can make a small injury a major one. I have seen people who have now got injuries for life because they didn't visit a doctor in the early stages. Things that should have healed in a week have taken a year.

The other problem is that gymnasts have a higher threshhold of pain that regular kids. It comes with the territory. Competitive gymnastics is a painful sport, streching hurts, conditioning hurts, falling of the beam hurts, hands on bars hurt. Kids who don't have a high threshold of pain just don't tend to stick with gymnastics. Those who do don't often complain of minor pain. This means an injury can often be worse than your gymnast lets on.

I am not saying either of these things are the case. But your daughter is young and injuries may happen and it is important to be prepared for them.

When you do visit a doctor many will have the attitude "no gymnastics for X amount of time". If they do, you may need to see another doctor. Again, your daughter is so young that if she did have to take a break from gym it wouldnt harm her terribly but this is a sign of a doctor who may not be knowledgable in our sport. Gymnasts who take a large amount of time off gym for injuries and then return to training are far more likely to reinjure themselves. Kids who are training a lot of hours a week should not just be stopping and starting. Imagine training 20 hours a week and then for 3 weeks not training at all and then returning to 20 hours a week. A doctor should advise you on what is and is not safe to do. Even for a serious injury the gymnast should still be spending time in the gym doing a special modified strength and flexibility program to ensure they do not put themselves at major risk of reinjury when they return to the sport.

[mariposamama]

Thanks Aussie coach. I am going to try to get her in to see a foot doctor today. If not, we will go to gym and see how it feels. I know she twisted her toe pretty bad on Tuesday (which is the same side she has the pain) so I am hoping it is just a muscle or tendon soreness. I can't imagine her having a fracture, but you never know. She is a super active kid in and out of gym.

[bogwoppit]

Until then, ice, ice and then ice a bit more. It works wonders. That is if you can stop her turning cartwheels in the house.

[mariposamama]

bogwobbit,

well, we can't see the podiatrist until next tuesday. she says it doesn't hurt at all right now unless i push really hard. we have put ice on it and she has taken some motrin. i also wrapped it (which i think she thinks is just the greatest as she says she has seen some of the big girls with wrapped injuries). i really can't tell if she is really hurt or not. she is still dancing around the house and doing gymnastics. we have no insurance and this visit is going to be pricey. i just wish i knew if it was a big deal or not.

we are going to gym today. i am going to talk to her coaches and see how she does. they will probably do bars for awhile today since they did beam, vault on tuesday.

she played hard all day yesterday and didn't complain until last night. she was practicing her handstands to bridges and her back walkovers and tic-tocs and after landing on her "toes" all that time, said it hurts. i just don't know.

[mariposamama]

and i am not worried about her having to take a break, though i think that SHE will go crazy. even at home she is always out side running or riding her bike. she never stops. i really really hope that it is nothing. i can already see her being miserable not being able to play like she usually does. especially since it is beautiful weather here and when summer gets here, it is way too hot to play outside for any amount of time.

[bogwoppit]

You are doing all the right things and she seems to be running around on it. If it were my kid I would hold off for a few days. My girls have had their share of sore things that go away very quickly with just ice and motrin, with a bit of Mom enforced rest thrown in. Real injuries usually persist and prevent them from doing gym properly.

DD went back to gym after a three week xmas break, her butt muscles were just killing her this morning. So she iced them!!! We have learned, after 7 years in this sport, that ice fixes many things as do rest, compression and elevation. So, in my house, unless there is and obvious issue (bleeding, major swelling, inability to use injured bit) we do the R.I.C.E. thing for a couple of days.

Good luck, I can appreciate how stressful this is with the whole insurance thing.

This of course is my opinion, not that of the chalk bucket or it's members. and is not medical advice. (Though hubby is a dentist, and people ask me about their teeth all the time, like I'd know!!!)

[mariposamama]

bogwoppit,

thanks again! she is on mom enforced rest right now. LOL. i told her that if she is really hurt, that playing around could make it worse. so she is sitting down and watching tv right now.

we are going to go to gym today, but i am going to talk to the coaches and see if she can avoid anything pounding like ROs and BHSs. i am also going to tape her foot as that seems to help. (though i think it is psychological because as she says, it doesn't hurt unless she walks on her tippy toes)

i am actually glad that they can't see her until tuesday. gives it time to rest (well, as much as a 5 year old will rest) and we have friday, sat, sun and mon to see if it gets better and i will try to keep her off it as much as i can.

i totally understand the advice thing. i am a nurse and i get it all the time. mostly from my sister, who calls for all her friends, LOL, but still.

[mariposamama]

just an update. she went to gym that thursday and was fine. by saturday, she said the pain was totally gone, so we didn't go to the podiatrist. she couldn't even find the spot that was hurting.

thanks everyone. i sometimes think the internet is a curse and a blessing. LOL. too much information sometimes can be bad for you.

[gymdog]

I'm glad it turned out to be nothing. I actually broke my foot there when I was about 13 (walking down the stairs, not at gymnastics ) but it healed well in under 4 weeks (ortho was pretty surprised - he guessed 8 when he looked at it) and I never really had problems with it again. I guess it's pretty easy to break that part of your foot with a turning action though. I've known three girls at gymnastics that did it.