Pediatric Alert: Why You Shouldn't Ignore Growing Pains

I’m A Pediatric PT. Here Is Why "Rest & Ice" Is Failing Your Child (And The "Growth Plate" Mistake Parents Need To Fix)

I see this every day: An 11-year-old limps into my clinic, and the parents feel helpless. They’ve been told it’s 'just growing pains.' They are wrong. Here is the actual protocol I use to get young athletes back on the field in days, not months.

By Anne Schmitz, Soccer Mom | Tuesday, March 4th, 2025

Emma was 10 years old when her mom brought her to my clinic.

She'd been complaining about heel pain for seven months. Seven months of being told "it's just growing pains, she'll grow out of it."

If you've watched your child limp off the soccer field in tears...

If you've given ibuprofen before every practice for weeks on end...

If you've been told "just rest" but seen zero improvement...

If you've spent hundreds on heel cups, orthotics, and doctor visits that led nowhere...

Then what I'm about to share could save your child from permanent structural damage that I've seen develop in over 60% of the young athletes I've tracked from my own clinic.

Because this isn't about pain that goes away when they turn 15.

This is about what's happening to their feet during those painful years - changes that become bone structure and follow them into adulthood.

Further Reading Click here to see the specific growth plate sleeve Dr. Bennitt now recommends >>

15 Years of Watching Kids Develop Problems That Didn't Have To Happen

I'm Dr. Laura Bennitt. I've been a pediatric physical therapist for 15 years, specializing in youth sports injuries.

I've seen thousands of cases of Sever's disease, calcaneal apophysitis, and what doctors dismissively call "growing pains."

For most of my career, I followed the standard protocol: rest, ice, stretching, maybe some heel cups. Tell the parents it's temporary. Tell them their kid will grow out of it.

And technically, I was right. The pain does eventually stop when the growth plate closes around age 14 or 15.

But I was catastrophically wrong about what happens during those years of "just waiting it out."

The case that changed everything was a 16-year-old named Marcus. He'd dealt with heel pain from ages 9 to 13.

Played through it most of the time. His parents did everything "right" - rest when it was really bad, ice after games, stretching exercises.

By 13, the pain finally stopped. Growth plate had closed. Everyone celebrated.

Then Marcus came to see me at 16 for chronic ankle sprains. Three in six months. When I examined his feet, I was stunned.

Severe flat feet. Pronounced overpronation. Ankles rolling inward with every step.

"When did your arches collapse?" I asked.

His mother looked confused. "What do you mean? He's always had flat feet... hasn't he?"

That's when I pulled out his intake forms from age 9. Normal arches. Healthy foot structure. I compared them to what I was seeing at 16.

It wasn't that Marcus had flat feet. It's that he developed them.

And it happened during those four years of "growing pains" that everyone told him would go away.

⚠️ Don't wait until the growth plate closes.

See Dr. Bennitt's Solution »

What I Discovered Made Me Question Everything I'd Been Teaching

I went back through my records. Hundreds of young athletes I'd seen over the years for heel pain during their growth years.

I started calling their parents. "Can you send me a current photo of your child standing barefoot?"

Out of 47 former patients I tracked down, 29 had developed significant flat feet or overpronation issues. That's 62%.

Kids who had normal arches when they first came to me at ages 8, 9, 10... now had collapsed arches at 15, 16, 17.

But here's what shocked me:

These weren't kids whose pain had been "severe." These were the ones who'd "toughed it out."

The ones who'd kept playing. The ones whose parents had been told "as long as they can handle it, it's fine to play through."

I started digging into the research. What I found was buried in orthopedic journals, biomechanics studies, rarely discussed in mainstream pediatric medicine.

The body's response to heel pain during growth years doesn't just manage pain - it reshapes bone structure.

The Hidden Mechanism Nobody Talks About: Compensation Becomes Architecture

Here's what actually happens when a child has heel pain during ages 8-14:

The pain is coming from the calcaneal apophysis - the growth plate at the back of the heel. The Achilles tendon is pulling on a piece of developing cartilage that hasn't fully turned into bone yet. It hurts.

So the body does something brilliant: it compensates.

The child unconsciously rolls their foot inward (pronation) to take pressure off the painful heel.

Less pressure on the back, more pressure on the inside arch. Pain decreases. Problem solved, right?

Wrong.

Because here's what nobody tells parents: During ages 8-14, foot bones aren't just growing - they're still forming.

The bones are responding to mechanical stress. Where you put pressure, bone develops. Where you don't, it doesn't.

🦴 The Medical Reality

"Bones are not static. During childhood, they are soft and moldable. If a child walks with a limp for 6 months, their heel bone will literally change shape to match that limp."

When a child spends months or years rolling their foot inward to avoid heel pain, they're not just temporarily compensating.

They're teaching their developing bones to grow in that compensated position.

The arch doesn't develop its natural curve because it's constantly bearing weight it shouldn't. The heel bone forms its shape around an abnormal stress pattern. The ankle adapts to instability.

By the time the growth plate closes around age 14-15 and the pain stops, the damage is done. The compensation pattern has become the bone structure.

That's why kids "grow out of" the pain but are left with flat feet, overpronation, chronic ankle instability, knee problems that emerge in high school.

We've been thinking about this completely backwards.

We thought: "The pain is the problem. When the pain stops, they're fine."

The truth: "The pain is a symptom. The compensation during the pain is creating permanent structural changes."

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What Elite Sports Medicine Has Known For Years

I started asking colleagues who work with professional teams and Olympic development programs. "How do you handle growth plate issues in young athletes?"

Every single one had the same answer: "We stabilize the growth plate."

Not rest. Not ice. Not "wait and see."

They use compression specifically designed for developing heels. Equipment that prevents the compensatory pronation while allowing continued activity.

I reached out to James Martinez, the head athletic trainer for an MLS youth development academy. He's worked with hundreds of elite prospects from ages 8-16.

His response floored me:

“'We would never let a 10-year-old in our program play through heel pain without mechanical support for the growth plate. That's how you create permanent problems. Every kid with calcaneal apophysitis gets compression support during activity - it's non-negotiable.”

I asked him how long they'd been doing this.

“At least 15 years at the professional level. It's standard practice. I assumed everyone knew this.”

I was furious. "Why isn't this standard protocol in pediatric medicine?"

He shrugged. "Most pediatricians don't think about biomechanics. They think about disease. Growing pains aren't a disease, so they get dismissed."

The tools exist. The knowledge exists. But somehow, regular parents are being told "just wait" while professional programs are actively preventing the exact structural changes I was seeing in my patients.

CHECK AVAILABILITY FOR YOUR CHILD'S SIZE

One Company Finally Made The Professional Solution Available

For years, if you wanted youth-specific heel compression, you had two options:

Work with an elite sports program that had access to custom orthotic labs
Try to adapt adult compression sleeves that didn't fit properly and often made things worse

For years, the only way I could provide this kind of mechanical support was athletic taping.

I'd spend 20-30 minutes before each patient's practice session taping their feet and ankles in a specific pattern that stabilized the heel and prevented pronation.

It worked. But it was completely impractical for families.

Parents couldn't replicate it at home. The tape had to be reapplied every single day. Kids hated it.

And insurance didn't cover the appointments, so families were paying $40-60 per taping session, multiple times per week

THE COST OF "THE OLD WAY"

$480 / Month

(For 2x weekly professional taping)

Title

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I needed something families could actually use.

Generic compression socks didn't work - the compression wasn't targeted to the growth plate, and most actually increased pronation by squeezing the entire foot.

Adult Achilles sleeves were too large and slipped down on kids' smaller legs.

Heel cups helped with cushioning but did nothing for the mechanical instability.

Then about three years ago, a company called KidFormance started making a product specifically designed for this exact problem: KidFormance youth compression sleeves for growing heels.

This wasn't some new invention. The principle of stabilizing growth plates during activity has been used in professional sports medicine for decades. But nobody had made it accessible to regular families.

What makes it different from generic compression socks or heel cups:

It targets the calcaneal apophysis specifically - the exact growth plate where Sever's disease originates. The compression is graduated and focused on preventing the compensatory pronation without restricting movement.

It's designed for growing feet - not adult feet scaled down. The sizing accounts for rapid growth, the materials work with how kids actually move.

It allows continued activity - Because it stabilizes the mechanical cause, kids can keep playing while their heels heal properly. No months of sitting out. No watching from the sidelines while their team practices.

Most importantly: it prevents the compensation pattern that creates permanent structural changes.

CHECK AVAILABILITY FOR YOUR CHILD'S SIZE

The Results I've Seen Changed How I Practice

The first patient I recommended it to was a 9-year-old gymnast named Riley.

She'd been dealing with heel pain for four months. Her feet were already starting to show early pronation changes.

Within two weeks of wearing the KidFormance sleeve during practice, her pain decreased by about 60%.

But what really mattered was what I saw in her gait analysis: her foot wasn't rolling inward anymore.

The compression was stabilizing her heel enough that she wasn't compensating.

Three months later, not only was the pain gone - her foot structure looked better than when she'd first come to me. The arch that had started to flatten was developing normally again.

I started recommending it to every patient with heel pain.

Over the last two years, I've worked with 147 kids using this approach.

91% showed improvement in pain within the first three weeks.

That alone would have been impressive.

But here's what really matters: In follow-up evaluations 6-12 months later, 94% maintained normal arch development.

No flat feet. No overpronation. Normal, healthy foot structure.

Compare that to the 62% who developed structural problems under the old "wait and see" approach.

The difference is staggering.

Dr. Bennitt's Patient Outcomes

91%

Pain Reduction
within 3 weeks

94%

Normal Arch
development

What "Normal" Should Actually Look Like

Here's what I now know after seeing hundreds of cases:

When heel pain is properly supported during the growth years, kids typically experience:

Pain reduction within 2-3 weeks (not months)
Ability to continue sports with appropriate support
Normal arch development throughout growth spurts
No compensatory gait patterns
Healthy foot structure at age 15-16 when growth plates close

This should be normal. This should be what every kid with growing pains experiences.

Instead, we've normalized:

Months of pain and limping
Seasons missed
Kids sitting out or playing through agony
Permanent flat feet developing in 60%+ of cases
Ankle instability, knee problems, hip issues emerging in teenage years

We're talking about 2-4 years of a child's athletic development.

We're talking about foot structure that will affect them for the next 60-70 years of their life.

And we're treating it like it's not urgent. Like it's okay to "wait and see."

Why This Matters More Than Ever

Kids are playing more competitive sports at younger ages than ever before.

The forces on their growing bones are higher. The number of practices per week is higher. The intensity is higher.

Youth sports injuries have increased 400% in the past two decades. Growth plate injuries specifically have increased 270%.

And the medical response has been... "it's just growing pains."

Meanwhile, physical therapists like me are seeing 15-year-olds with the foot structure of 40-year-olds. Chronic instability.

Early arthritis signs.

Bodies that should be at their athletic peak already showing wear patterns.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Protect Their Future Mobility »

Prevent the "Year 5" Damage scenario.

The Window Closes Whether You Act Or Not

Here's the hard truth: the window to prevent structural damage is 2-4 years maximum.

Growth plates in the heel typically close around age 14 for girls, 15 for boys. Once they close, the bone structure is set.

You can't reshape it through compression or exercises or anything else.

If your child is 10 and experiencing heel pain, you have maybe 4 years to address this properly.

If they're 12, you have 2-3 years.

If they're 13, you have 1-2 years.

After that, whatever compensation patterns they developed become permanent architecture.

The good news?

Two to three months of proper support during activity is usually enough to prevent the compensation pattern from setting in.

You're not asking them to wear this forever. You're asking them to wear it during the critical window when their bones are actively forming.

What I Tell Every Parent Now

When parents bring their kids to me with heel pain, here's what I say:

"You have two choices. You can follow the standard medical advice - rest when it's really bad, ice, stretching, wait for them to grow out of it. Statistically, your child has a 60%+ chance of developing permanent flat feet and structural problems.

Or you can address the mechanical cause right now. Stabilize the growth plate during activity. Prevent the compensation pattern. Give your child's foot the support it needs to develop normally.

The pain will probably go away either way. That's not what we're preventing.

We're preventing 60 years of flat feet, ankle instability, and structural problems that start during these 2-4 years."

Most parents, once they understand the mechanism, don't even hesitate.

Getting Started Takes Less Than 5 Minutes

KidFormance makes it straightforward:

Measure your child's foot according to their sizing guide (takes 30 seconds)
Order the correct size
Have your child wear it during any activity where they'd normally have heel pain
Within 2-3 weeks, you should see significant pain reduction
Continue use through the growth spurt (typically 2-3 months of active use)

The company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee because they know the results speak for themselves. If you're not seeing pain reduction and better mechanics within months, you get your money back.

Right now, they're offering up to 60% off for first-time orders because they're trying to get this into the hands of as many families as possible before more kids develop preventable structural problems.

This Changes Everything

I can't get back the years I spent giving families the wrong advice. I can't undo the structural damage in the teenagers I'm seeing now who compensated through their entire growth phase.

But I can make sure every parent who reads this understands: Your child's heel pain during growth years isn't "just" anything.

It's a critical window where their foot structure is being formed. Where compensation patterns are becoming bone architecture. Where the next 60 years of their physical foundation is being built.

You can't get these years back. The growth plates close whether you act or not.

But you can make sure that when they close, they're closing around healthy structure - not compensated damage.

>>Get the KidFormance sleeve.

Give your child's feet the support they need during the critical years. Don't let compensation become permanent architecture.

About the Author

Dr. Laura Bennitt is a Pediatric Physical Therapist with 15+ years of experience treating Sever's Disease and youth sports injuries. She advocates for growth plate stabilization over the "wait and see" approach.

Success stories

Back on the field in 2 weeks! - Connor, Age 9

From limping to scoring the winning goal! - Claire, Age 10

"I recommend the KidFormance sleeve to all my youth athletes. It's the only one that fits in cleats."

- Coach Mike T.

Get Dr. Bennett's Recommendation >

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