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Injury prevention recommendation – knee

My 8 year old daughter is a competing gymnast.
In the last few months, whenever she seems to be having a growth spurt, she complains of pain in her right knee while working out. Can you reccomend a knee support that would help reduce the risk of injury while providing freedom of movement when tumbling.
Must fit a tiny leg! She measures only 10 1/2 inches at the center of the patella.


1 Comment found

    May PT

    9 10

    Jennifer,PLEASE do not ignore your daughter’s knee pain (or any other pain with an 8 year old). As a Certified Athletic Trainer for 20 years, I have seen my share of young, highly competitive, elite young athletes, many of then gymnasts. I have seen the ones which have come into my office after “sucking up the pain” until they could no longer bear it. Some of these young athletes had waited too long already, and X-rays revealed non-reversable injuries to their fragile growth plates. These are the gymnasts who you hear (or read) about later in life, when they are already having osteoarthritis. Please don’t listen to coaches or any other parents…bring your daughter to an Pediatric Orthopedist at once. If the injury is nothing serious, then that doctor can fit her with a brace, and you can have total peace of mind. In children, the tendons are usually stronger than the bony areas that they attatch to…this is why children tend to rarely have true “tendonitis” or ankle sprains like an adult would…they are more likely to have small fractures or even growth plate injuries. Take your daughter to see an Orthopedist, and please let us know what the diagnosis and prognosis are. {Sorry for any typos, but it is late at night and I am blurry eyed.}

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