What to Do When My 8 Year Old Complains About the Back of Heal Hurting.

my 11 year old has the same problem took him to the orthopedic that specializes in feet and they x-rayed and said it was seavers desease, basicly growing pains, gave him steaching execrises to do, it still acts up when he is real active and I give him advil for it.

Sounds like Sever's Disease.(calcaneal apophysitis) Stop the aggravating activity, see the doctor, frequent stretching for the calves is necessary. A heel lift may also help or the doctor may put her in a walking boot.

Hi P.!

I used to dance and was a University dance professor.

First, a young girl should never take dance classes or dance with pain. I did not even allow my professionals to take class with pain. Being sore is fine, being in pain is not!

Second, have your daughter stretch a bit. Not the stretches they do in class.

1. Have her facing a wall with her feet about 12-18 inches away from the wall and her hands on the wall parallel with her shoulders. Have her keep her heels flat on the floor and lean her body towards the wall by bending her arms until she feels a strech.

2. Have her do the same stretch and then while she is stretching, have her bend her knees to stretch out the soleus under the gastrocnemeus muscle.

3. Have her stand near your kitchen counter or island. Have her bend her knees and place her arms under the counter and use her hands to push herself into the floor.

4. While sitting on the floor - have her use her hand to flex her foot and push her toes back gently to stretch and then take her hand away and have her her roll through the foot until it is in a pointed position - repeat.

Also, have her relax on the sofa with you and rub her calves, if you feel knots in her calves - those need to be worked out. In order to avoid her yelling at you - have her sit on the floor with a tennis ball. Place the tennis call under her calve and have her lift her body so some of her body weight is on the ball. This should give her the "hurts but good" feeling.

Also, 3-4 hours of structured dance classes are a lot for an 8 year old. You would be better off doing 1.5 hours every day than this heavy load on her young body. Also, please do not let her go to pointe until she is 9 and a half! Her feet will thank you later!

Good Luck and I hope this helps!
S. M.
The Cerebellum Center
www.cerebellumcenter.com

As a physical therapist I would be very concerned about any reoccurring injury in an 8 year old due to repetitive use. At 8 your daughter is still growing and could potentially have permanent damage if her schedule is such that it causes these type of injuries. I would start by talking with her pediatrician. I would also highly encourage you to take a look at the dance schedule. I am just worried that her body is telling you that she is not ready to dance for that long of a period at that intensity. Don't take this lightly because she only has one body and will want to be dancing at our age! Good luck.

When I was in my 30's, my heel hurt off and on in variable amounts. The podiatrist I went to x-rayed it and said my heel had a bone spur which might have been caused by poorly fitting shoes. I was wearing high heels a lot, some of which were too narrow on one foot that was just a bit wider than a B width, and sometimes wearing heels with straps on the back. He recommended three things of which only one worked. (1) Wear better and wider shoes, get out of those heels for the most part, and stop wearing strap backed shoes. (That has worked to this day and I never had the problem again.) (2) Pay $350 for a molded shoe insert and wear it. (didn't help) 3) Take Naproxin every day. (are you kidding me? Take an anti-inflammatory for the rest of your life for an intermittent problem? No Thanks!) Also know that most good podiatrists recommend that you avoid any foot surgery whenever possible because of multiple complications. Don't be swayed by a doctor's desire to earn his next vacation on your income. Get several opinions if they recommend surgery or inserts.

Bottom line: Check out all her shoes. Do they rub and cause redness or blisters. Does the pain come when wearing those shoes? Does it come when she's not wearing shoes? Are her feet wider than standard store issue width?

I would definitely take her to the doctor. It might be a bone spur. My husband had them in his heels and it is very painful. Poor baby. Good luck.

When my son was 8 years old he began having the same issues. He is an avid competitive soccer player so he was practicing soccer as much as your daughter is dancing. I took him to a sports medicine/orthopedic specialist (we livedin Austin at the time)and he was diagnosed with Sever's Disease (not sure what the medical term was called). Basically it is a growing pain that is developed by very active children. In laymen's terms her achillas tendon is being ripped off her foot bone as a result of lots of activity. This is something that will be outgrown in 2-3 years.

With that said there were lots of remedies that truly helped my son. First it was necessary to have him take a week off all activity to let the pain and inflamation settle down in his foot. From there we were sent to physicall therapy and given several exercises to do at home everyday in order to stretch and strengthen the tendon in the heel. Finally, upon returning to activity it was important to ice down the heel and administer IB profron aftwards. Within a few weeks of these helpful tips his foot started feeling so much better. We had to learn to manage the issue until his muscles and tendons could catch up with the growth of his bones.

Now that we live in McKinney we see Doctor Robert Berry with Team Orthopedics. They are located off of Virgina Road. He is a former doctor to the X-games athletes and is versed in the way of children's sports injuries. He is a very knowledgable doctor and great with kids. His number is ###-###-####. He used to have an office in Frisco as well, not sure if he still does.

I hope this helps, remember that it is most likely something that is growth related and with time, patience and stretches it can be managed.

We just took our 10 year old son monday for the same thing. It turned out to be Severs Disease which is a bad name for what is really a growing pain in active children. We were given some stretching techniques along with Advil and icing his heel after activity...oh yeah we got him some gel heel cups from Sports Authority. This has help! Good luck

Just went through this with my 10 year old, soccer playing, daughter. She missed practices and soccer camp for two weeks because of the pain, so I decided to take her to a podiatrist.

She has been diagnosed with two conditions -- plantar fasciitis and Sever's Disease. She now is wearing special inserts that address both issues and have given her much relief, as evidenced by the fact she played in a soccer tournament this past weekend and the only foot pain she experienced were from blisters!

Sever's Disease is not as bad as the name implies. It typically occurs in children ages 10-13 and has to do with stress being put on the growth plate of a child's foot. The condition usually clears up once the growth plate fuses at about age 13. Our podiatrist said children who are involved in activities with a lot of running and jumping, especially in cleated shoes or barefoot -- are usually prone to this. http://www.orthoseek.com/articles/sever.html

Plantar fasciitis has to do with strain on a ligament that connects the heel bone to the toes. http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/plantar-fasciitis-topi...

I have pf with my feet and they hurt a lot and are stiff. I wear custom orthotics to relieve the pain and use techniques I learned at physical therapy to strengthen my feet and ankles.

My Dr. John Crates and Dr. Dean Moore are the best in the area. Both well known. Dr. Moore can do an F-scan to see what is going on. I use both of these Dr's.

They are both with Plano Orthopedic Sports Medicine
www.posmc.com We've seen most of the Dr's in this practice. They are all fantastic. One thing I appreciate is that they look at surgery as a last resort option.

I hope she gets better soon!

You really should seek advice from a sports medicine specialist. They can give some stretches/exercise to her that will help. My daughter is on HS Drill team and she recently rolled her ankle. Dr David Smith in Dr Tolar's office on 1709 is amazing. He had her up within a week. She will have tryouts two weeks after her injury. Call ###-###-#### for his office.

We've had the same problem with our daughter since she was 4 y/o...she's 6 now. We didn't go to the dr, but when her heels hurt, we have her stretch and back off on the running/jumping/ballet at school and day care. Sometimes it goes away in a few days sometimes longer. We also discovered that motrin, elevating and putting warm heated towels on her heels about 30 min before bedtime helps her to relax. Good Luck.

Sounds like she has bone spurs, my sister had them in the same spot.

Sounds like plantar fascitis. Get a podiatrist who may recommend physical therapy (which really helped me) or a custom-made orthotic, as well as exercises. For now have her stretch the back of her legs. Try looking up exercises for PF on the internet. Good luck!

i don't know in kids but my husband has plantar fascitis and he said it hurts a lot in the heel area when he walk and is worst the day after he run

I would definitely listen to the advice of others, but just wanted to add that I remember having that same pain in high school. My mom took me to a podiatrist and he simply said that my shoes were too small. We were flats a lot back then and my heel was too narrow to keep a shoe on, so I always had to go down a size. Still today, I cannot wear any type of flat, pump, sling back, etc... because my heel is so narrow. With your daughter's activity level, I doubt the solution would be this simple though. Good luck!

Also check her spinal alignment. I have severe scoliosis, and when I am being really h*** o* my back, my heels hurt and/or my toes go numb or even vibrate.

As someone who has danced my entire life. Ballet for 15 yrs. I agree with everything Sara said. I also think that is to much time for an 8 yr old. I think even as I got older I only dance that much when we were getting ready for a performance.

Good luck, I know she will be OK. Probably just needs a break.