Parents Does your child have nagging pain??

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Where is your dd's nagging pain

  • neck

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • upper back

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • lower back

    Votes: 10 26.3%
  • shoulder

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • elbow

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • wrist

    Votes: 7 18.4%
  • knee

    Votes: 7 18.4%
  • ankle

    Votes: 7 18.4%
  • thigh

    Votes: 1 2.6%
  • foot

    Votes: 2 5.3%
  • My dd is pain-free so far

    Votes: 10 26.3%
  • My dd's bacon is aching (everywhere)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    38
  • Poll closed .
I took DD to the ped yesterday and mentioned her wrists. :( Dr examined her and says she has tendonitis starting in her wrists. I have bad wrists (carpal tunnel) so I am not suprised, I was hoping they wouldnt act up though for her. So she left it up to the coach to decide what we should do. Right now we are doing the motrin 3 times a day, icing and wrist excercises.

So out of curiousity.................
It seems like all gymnasts have one area that is the main problem, so where is your dds problem area?

I made it a private poll;)
 
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I couldn't tick any boxes, oldest had pain for two years all over the place, but mostly ankles/knees/hipps. She was never allowed to do vault or to tumble when she had pain, I am just too uptight for that. She has no pain now, so she is making the most of it, who knows what the future holds for her.

Little DD has no pain at 9 years, hopefully she never has any.

Chronic pain is not an option in our house, sis in law is a rheumatologist, we know too many things to mess around with their long term health.
 
My 9yo is pain free right now, thank goodness. :) She is a jr. novice in the aau system (approx. level 5/6 USAG).
 
All good in this house! Very glad too- seen the threads on the site. Not pretty:(
 
I probably don't even need to post my reply since you all have been with me through the whole wrist ordeal. Before that we were good though :rolleyes:
 
Well, this question comes up at a bad time. . . .

Nevertheless, let me step up on a soapbox here and quote from an article on injuries to child atheletes in the British Medical Journal: "A child should never be allowed or expected to 'work through the pain'".

There.

Unfortunately, my child told me this week that her wrist is bothering her.

It happens that for several years I've had something of a hobbyist's interest in gymnastic wrist injuries, so of course the first thing that I did was to have my child examined be a veterinarian--um, that's me. However, it happens that my minimal exposure to orthopedics came long ago (and for years I've studied infectious diseases in humans, so I don't even have recent clinical experience with puppies to draw on), so we quickly moved on to having her examined by a physician--that would be my wife. Although she did once work with actual children rather than with fluffy small animals (she now studies bone problems in postmenopausal women, rather than in kids), my wife's knowledge of pediatric sports medicine in synergy with mine is certainly no greater than that of an average pediatrician. Clearly, we need some expert advice.

While we wait for the appointment, dd will take a holiday from the mild and occasional pain. My child happens to be an 11 year-old level 9 who is just entering her growth spurt; she plans to compete this winter with a Yurchenko layout vault with a full twist, and the learning process requires many repetitions of a vault that to the astonished but untrained parental eye might seem to be hard on the growth plates of what for most humans is a nonweightbearing joint. I just discussed this with her coaches yesterday; they were very understanding and supportive: they want to help to keep her active in the sport for years. So we agreed dd will take time off from activities that cause her any discomfort, and do what she can until she's again pain-free.

About that expert advice: You might use flippymonkeysmom's recent posts as a reminder that a physician's OK to continue an activity might not be worth (insert clever but disdainful phrase here--I'm thinking of a phrase used to describe the vice-presidency). Little flippymonkey was given the go-ahead not only to continue training but to attend a gymnastics camp after her wrist problem was diagnosed as tendinitis--and only a few months later she's an ex-gymnast. I cannot fault the physician here; it turns out that (1) most of these problems can't be detected by radiographs until late in the game, (2) most injuries likely wouldn't be checked by MRI until they're quite serious or of long duration, and (3) it's common to mistake bone problems in kids for what would normally be a tendon injury in an adult (in one clinical series, 87% of the kids who were diagnosed with "sprained wrist" turned out to have growth plate injuries). Accordingly, I don't expect to learn much from a physical exam by a sports medicine specialist: we can expect it to be unremarkable unless we let this go on too long.

Fortunately, it turns out that for most of these overuse injuries, rest is the cure. Unfortunately, that prescription seems quite unacceptable to many gymnasts and even to some parents. Just after I discussed my daughter's nascent injury with the coaches, I ran into the mother of two of my child's teammates; her thirteen year-old has suffered wrist pain for more than a year (this is common in gymnastics: studies suggest that depending on their competitive level about half to three-quarters of gymnasts develop wrist pain, and the pain is chronic for most of them), while the younger one is experiencing pain on floor, vault, and beam. When I related my conversation with the coaches, she said that her daughters would never agree to take time off. Too bad: I suspect that sooner or later their chronic pain may drive them from the sport. I hope that doesn't happen to my child.
 
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9 yr old dd is pain-free right now. She does have a little cut on the heel of her hand from falling down in the driveway the other day. She ended up picking the flap of skin off and now it is about the size of a dime rip. She said she was running to get inside the house. She's not the most graceful or coordinated when it comes to doing "daily things" and she always has bruises on her shins from "tripping up" the stairs. Go figure...
 
I noted wrist pain, but (knock on wood) dd does not have any pain at this time. But She has had some wrist pain in the past and once and a while will pull, tug and shake her wrists.. then claim they are fine...
 
I should clarify when I said my ped left it up to the coach to decide. She meant if she thought she should get wrist guards or not. Ped did discuss when to bring the ortho into the picture though
 
DD is really struggling with shin splits. I can really relate. I have had shin pain since I was little.
 
While we wait for the appointment, dd will take a holiday from the mild and occasional pain. My child happens to be an 11 year-old level 9 who is just entering her growth spurt; she plans to compete this winter with a Yurchenko layout vault with a full twist, and the learning process requires many repetitions of a vault that to the astonished but untrained parental eye might seem to be hard on the growth plates of what for most humans is a nonweightbearing joint.

I was just talking to some of the coaches at dd's gym about this. My dd is 12 and will be doing L8 this yr, competing the Yurchenko. She has the vault, but not consistently. Coaches are not rushing to do this vault anymore because we have had several "young" 10-12 yr olds who have broken their wrists and it is being attributed to this vault. Growth plates are serious things and these girls are not done developing and are so susceptible to injury because of the repetitiveness. Dd works drills every day, but only throws the vault at most maybe 6-8 times a week. I am starting to think that this is a blessing in disguise. I am looking for longevity in this sport for her, so if we have to take it slow - that's ok. I really wish that USAG would look into the correlation between this vault and injury within the younger age groups and maybe re-think having this vault for kids so young. Sorry to get off on a tangent here, but this topic is near and dear to me at the moment.
 
I really wish that USAG would look into the correlation between this vault and injury within the younger age groups and maybe re-think having this vault for kids so young.

I'll follow you off topic:

My daughter's coach indicated that the way these vaults are taught has changed dramatically in recent years to improve safety, as you've indicated from your daughter's experience. Moreover, USAG is making some changes to reduce the probability of injury by increasing the start values of many vaults in L9 and by excluding some vaults from that level; by removing the need/temptation to do very difficult vaults to achieve high scores at lower levels, perhaps injuries can be reduced. (BTW, that was why the vault your child will do this year was formerly excluded from L8. . . .) For example, the 10.0 vault that my child will use this season (and other vaults currently given 10.0) won't even be allowed in Level 9 beginning next August, and the start value for the easier Yurchenko layout (no twists) will be raised from 9.7 to 10.0 for L9. In addition, this should make it easier for L9 athletes to achieve the score necessary to qualify for L10. USAG apparently will continue to try to make many of the levels somewhat easier in an effort to keep kids in the sport--a good idea.
 
DD just saw the orthopedist yesterday for her shoulderpain.It started about 3 month ago and she can actually subluxate it by using her muscles.Looks freaky!!!!
She had some x-rays and he pushed and pulled on her shoulder.Her growth plate is fine.Both shoulders were compared.
He thinks it is musle related and since she already took 4 weeks of gym during summer(we were on vacation so she was able to rest it) he let her continue gym for now.She will take some Anti inflamatory and if it does not get better we will see the Orthopedist again.She tried to take Motrin before and did not tolorate that well so now she is taking something else and so far so good.
The coaches are very good and have her rest or do something else when her shoulder starts hurting.
It was very important to me that she get checked out by an orthopedist.Familyphycisians just don't have the experience with sportsinjuries.
And for her moving her shoulder around like that he said that some children are very flexible and infact his 2 daughters are able to do that same thing who are not in gymnastics but do other sports.
 
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My gymmie has had knee pain(started in left knee, then both) on/off for 2 years. She has seen a pediatric ortho and when it "flares up" gets treated by a great PT who was a gymnast, coach and now a judge. Right now, she feels it is more "irritation" of the growth plate in the knees than the actual flaking off that she had to start with. She has stretches for her hamstrings and hip flexors which are quite tight and contribute to the knee problem and give her some low back pain.

We take it day to day. She had almost a year with no knee pain, but has hit a little growth spurt again. Her coach doesn't push her too much on vault if she's hurting and lets her work do her tumbling on the tumble trak. She's not the most compliant patient----doesn't ice like she should and just leaves the Motrin sitting where I put it out for her.

As for the yurchenko. At our previous gym, the girls were being pushed to do timers as early as L5/6. They had several girls break fingers/wrists because they couldn't get the bhs up onto the porta table, so were impacting straight into it. Last year, their 2 L8s both had some bad times with the vault before states and both were just about in tears before vault----just terrified to do it and they had no other vault to do.
 

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