Childhood is all about exploring.  Along with those adventures often come accidents, bumps and bruises. In this article we are going to talk about three main categories of childhood injuries and how chiropractic can help. We have many years of experience working with children and enjoy the curiosity and energy they bring to the office. Read on to learn about the most common kinds of injuries we see in young people.

Accidents

We all know that accidents can happen at any age. Let’s look at some of the reasons children may be more prone to have accidents. First off, kids are often more active on a day-to-day basis.  When we may be tied to a desk or a computer, they are learning through play. Children are still learning about risk, social situations, and navigating their abilities which will continue to develop over time with some level of success and failure.  This of course can lead to injuries. Secondly, children are going through body changes that affect their physical abilities as well. It is not until around the age of 6 or 7 do body proportions reach that of an adult. This has a big influence on coordination in young children.  Lastly, children and teens generally don’t have as much lean muscle mass as an adult to protect from the impact of falls. The growth plate is also a vulnerable site for fractures compared to an adult who has reached “skeletal maturity”. Growth plate fractures are common in playground related injuries not just organized sport. They most often occur in the bones of the fingers, forearm, and lower leg.  Did you know falls are the leading cause of hospitalization in childhood?  

Falls can be so common in kids that we almost disregard the significance of them. They can lead to minor misalignments of the spine and pelvis we refer to as vertebral subluxation, but also fractures and even concussions. Concussions can be an entire post on its own, so I won’t go too much into that here except to say that children are more vulnerable to concussions than adults. Some of the reasons include the developing brains, weakness in the cervical spine musculature, and head to body proportion. The number of reported cases of concussion is pretty low under the age of 5 years old (although I believe that number is due to the way that symptoms present and parent education). According to the Centers for Disease Control, by the ages of 12-17 kids are nine times more likely to be diagnosed with concussion. Head injuries are definitely worth taking seriously in the pediatric population. Our office understands concussions and can be part of a comprehensive approach to addressing the injury and a safe return to play.

Overuse injuries

An overuse injury is one that comes from repetitive motion. There are many movements that we do regularly that one may not consider stressful. Let’s say throwing the ball to your family dog. If that motion is repeated more and more there is risk that the motion may start to cause excessive load on the structures around a joint, particularly the muscles and tendons. This is often what we see when children are playing sports. Some other reasons that a child might be more at risk for repetitive movement or overuse injury are faulty or inefficient biomechanics. Another reason is the growth centers of the bones not being fully formed. Osgood-Schlatter is a painful knee condition where the patellar tendon pulls on the upper part of the shin bone can be very debilitating for some active kids. We often see this in individuals who are doing lots of running and jumping like basketball, gymnastics, and track and field. Some other very common overuse conditions for this population include Little Leaguer’s Shoulder, Sever’s Disease, and Shin Splints. Sever's Diease and Osgood Schlatter also fall into the growth and development category of injury because they are related to the growth plate. . It is important to remember that your child can develop an overuse injury without being a part of organized sports. Acute injury care, parent education, and corrective exercises can be vital to get a handle on these kinds of injuries before they go too far. I like to think of overuse injuries as a form of trauma, even though it is a “micro trauma”. This micro trauma generally starts from the most protective layer, the muscles, and may show up as strains, tension, spasms. The next layer when the problem is not properly addressed is the tendon (the site where the muscle connects with the bone). This may lead to tendonitis or something you may not have heard of called “enthesopathy”. This is inflammation and pain at that site where the tendon is attached to the bone. The next layer is ligaments which connect bone to bone and lastly would be the bone itself.  As you can see, the longer the underlying cause is not addressed there generally will be further damage to the surrounding anatomical structure. I believe many people (kids included) have a high pain tolerance or have a strong belief that pain is a normal part of their sport. In other cases, despite the best efforts by the parent or a health care provider to manage the symptoms, the underlying cause is not being addressed. Chiropractic care can help with pain and help address biomechanics that may be at the root of the injury in the first place.

Growth and development

In early childhood (2-6 years old) children grow about 3 inches per year.   In late childhood (6-10 years old) boys and girls grow about the same rate of about 2-3 inches per year. In early adolescence (11-14 years old) at the onset of puberty hormonal changes will cause more rapid growth including body fat. Girls may experience these changes a bit earlier than boys. During late adolescence (15-19 years old) growth continues very rapidly for many kids. One kind of pain that we see are “growing pains”. They are most common from 2-12 years old although they don’t always correspond with a growth spurt. Doctors cannot explain why they occur, but some children do seem more prone to these pains. These pains are usually worse at night and may come very unexpectedly. Another thing that we see a lot is more intense physical conditioning in organized sports are kids are going into the adolescent years.  Kids sometimes lose the flexibility that they may have had in their younger years as bones become longer and soft tissue does not lengthen at the same pace. This is a time when the load on the connective tissue is more vulnerable to injury. Many of the same injuries can develop that we see from the category of overuse injuries we discussed above such as Sever's Disease and Osgood-Schlatter Disease because they occur at an "apophysitis", where there is a muscle and tendon attach to a growth plate. 

Whether a child sustains falls, collisions, repetitive movements, clumsy moments, car accidents and so much more the impact may not be immediately obvious. Sometimes there is pain immediately or after a prolonged period of time. I often see childhood injuries lead to postural distortions, weight shifts, leg length discrepancy, muscle imbalances and vertebral subluxations that affect the way we move, grow and heal.

Chiropractors are taught to assess neuromusculoskeletal conditions in adults and children.  We then use a variety of techniques including gentle hands-on adjustments, adjusting tools, soft tissue work, acupressure, kinesiology taping, bracing, age-appropriate corrective exercises, and in some cases sport training modifications and restrictions.   We will refer out or co-treat a pediatric patient with a physical therapist, occupational therapist or other medical specialist whenever necessary so there is no worry that we cannot work as a team to see your child get the very best! As you can see having a family chiropractor that sees both adults and children just makes sense. We understand each case of childhood injuries will always be different depending on age, developmental stage and their injury. We can help support growth and development so children can keep their high energy lifestyles and create healthy habits while they are young.

In summary, the role of chiropractic care can be beneficial to childhood injuries by helping with recovery to general overall health. Having a chiropractor for the entire family allows the children to also get periodic check-ups as they grow. They can quickly get an orthopedic assessment when non-life-threatening injuries arise. Just like in the adult population we will seek to find the most natural treatments that support the body’s natural recuperative powers which is not only good for health but peak performance.  You can call our office or book an appointment online to schedule for your child today.