Well, this question comes up at a bad time. . . .
Nevertheless, let me step up on a soapbox here and quote from an article on injuries to child atheletes in the British Medical Journal: "A child should never be allowed or expected to 'work through the pain'".
There.
Unfortunately, my child told me this week that her wrist is bothering her.
It happens that for several years I've had something of a hobbyist's interest in gymnastic wrist injuries, so of course the first thing that I did was to have my child examined be a veterinarian--um, that's me. However, it happens that my minimal exposure to orthopedics came long ago (and for years I've studied infectious diseases in humans, so I don't even have recent clinical experience with puppies to draw on), so we quickly moved on to having her examined by a physician--that would be my wife. Although she did once work with actual children rather than with fluffy small animals (she now studies bone problems in postmenopausal women, rather than in kids), my wife's knowledge of pediatric sports medicine in synergy with mine is certainly no greater than that of an average pediatrician. Clearly, we need some expert advice.
While we wait for the appointment, dd will take a holiday from the mild and occasional pain. My child happens to be an 11 year-old level 9 who is just entering her growth spurt; she plans to compete this winter with a Yurchenko layout vault with a full twist, and the learning process requires many repetitions of a vault that to the astonished but untrained parental eye might seem to be hard on the growth plates of what for most humans is a nonweightbearing joint. I just discussed this with her coaches yesterday; they were very understanding and supportive: they want to help to keep her active in the sport for years. So we agreed dd will take time off from activities that cause her any discomfort, and do what she can until she's again pain-free.
About that expert advice: You might use flippymonkeysmom's recent posts as a reminder that a physician's OK to continue an activity might not be worth (insert clever but disdainful phrase here--I'm thinking of a phrase used to describe the vice-presidency). Little flippymonkey was given the go-ahead not only to continue training but to attend a gymnastics camp after her wrist problem was diagnosed as tendinitis--and only a few months later she's an ex-gymnast. I cannot fault the physician here; it turns out that (1) most of these problems can't be detected by radiographs until late in the game, (2) most injuries likely wouldn't be checked by MRI until they're quite serious or of long duration, and (3) it's common to mistake bone problems in kids for what would normally be a tendon injury in an adult (in one clinical series, 87% of the kids who were diagnosed with "sprained wrist" turned out to have growth plate injuries). Accordingly, I don't expect to learn much from a physical exam by a sports medicine specialist: we can expect it to be unremarkable unless we let this go on too long.
Fortunately, it turns out that for most of these overuse injuries, rest is the cure. Unfortunately, that prescription seems quite unacceptable to many gymnasts and even to some parents. Just after I discussed my daughter's nascent injury with the coaches, I ran into the mother of two of my child's teammates; her thirteen year-old has suffered wrist pain for more than a year (this is common in gymnastics: studies suggest that depending on their competitive level about half to three-quarters of gymnasts develop wrist pain, and the pain is chronic for most of them), while the younger one is experiencing pain on floor, vault, and beam. When I related my conversation with the coaches, she said that her daughters would never agree to take time off. Too bad: I suspect that sooner or later their chronic pain may drive them from the sport. I hope that doesn't happen to my child.
Dr examined her and says she has tendonitis starting in her wrists. I have bad wrists (carpal tunnel) so I am not suprised, I was hoping they wouldnt act up though for her. So she left it up to the coach to decide what we should do. Right now we are doing the motrin 3 times a day, icing and wrist excercises.
She is a jr. novice in the aau system (approx. level 5/6 USAG).
