Kids Feet

At Shoes Feet Gear, we love treating kids. Peter, our owner, has four school-aged children and a deep personal understanding of what active kids go through. We treat all lower limb concerns and pains that children present with, with a special interest in active school-aged children. Shoes Feet Gear has affiliations with many large boys' and girls' school sports programs to help kids perform better and stay pain free.

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"Growing Pains" Is Not a Diagnosis

"Growing pains" is a term that gets used far too often as a catch-all explanation for children's lower limb pain. The reality is that there is no known pain that children are meant to experience simply from growing. What does exist are genuine, diagnosable injuries that children are prone to during periods of rapid growth — and these can be specifically identified and treated. If your child has been told they have "growing pains," they don't yet have a real diagnosis, and they don't yet have a targeted treatment plan.

Why Children From 12 Years Old Are Our Most Common Presentation

The most common age group presenting to our clinic with lower limb pain is from around 12 years old. Several factors converge at this age:

Rapid growth — When children grow in height above a certain rate, injury rates increase dramatically. Bones extend quickly, creating longer levers, while muscles lag several months behind — leaving them tight and relatively weak relative to the skeleton they're attached to.

High sport load — Children at this age are typically still playing multiple sports simultaneously. Fields are getting bigger, trainings longer, intensity higher — but they haven't dropped any sports yet because they love them all. Add a new school with pre-seasons and extra sports on offer, and the cumulative load becomes very high. This pattern is particularly common in children playing AFL, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, netball, touch football, hockey, and athletics — sports where the winter season brings a sharp increase in running load after a less active summer.

Loss of incidental activity — Children in Year 7, particularly girls, often stop running around at school, preferring to sit and socialise. This reduction in low-level impact activity weakens bones and tendons gradually. Swimmers and water polo players who have had no impact activity over summer are especially vulnerable when winter running sports begin.

Select a condition below for detailed information, or book online to see one of our Bardon podiatrists today.

Book an Assessment with our Bardon Podiatrists →

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