Both children and baby’s can often present with a range of conditions and symptoms. These symptoms can be categorized into two main areas of concern. Skin and/or nail problems or musculoskeletal concerns/symptoms.
Most skin and/or nail related pathologies coming through the door are spread through direct or indirect contact with another child. Some examples of these conditions are as follows:
Ingrown toenails are also very common in children. There are two main causes behind this unfortunate painful experience. It may be that the nail is incorrectly cut or that the nail plate is too thick or wide for the nail bed. This causes the nail to dig into the side of the toe and cause a small laceration, often getting infected and extremely painful.
Additional to skin and nail conditions, children often have painful musculoskeletal (Involving muscles, bones, nerve, ligaments, tendons and a few other structures in the body) problems. This most commonly stems from growth related pathologies. For example a common presentation is heel pain, which predominantly links back to tight calf muscles and a fast growing tibia (shin bone). This leads to an excessive pull from the Achilles tendon attachment (back of heel bone) resulting in a condition called Severs. Severs is essentially a separation of the growth plate from the bone, resulting in extremely painful heel(s) during physical activity.
Some common symptoms we assess, diagnose and treat include:
