Growing Pains or Something Else? Physiotherapy for Children and Teenagers in Nottingham
Here's a pattern most parents don't know about, and it explains a lot of what you might be seeing at home. Injury risk in young athletes doesn't rise steadily with age. It spikes. Research tracking adolescent players has found the highest injury rates cluster in the six months either side of peak height velocity — the point at which a child is growing fastest. So if your son or daughter has shot up over the last few months and suddenly has knee pain, heel pain, or aches that weren't there before, that isn't bad luck. It's the most predictable window in youth sport, and it's largely manageable once you know what you're looking at. Iris Physio's Nottingham clinic on Mansfield Road sees school-age children and teenagers with musculoskeletal problems. No referral needed, appointments usually within three to five days.
Why Growing Bodies Break Differently
In an adult, when a muscle pulls hard against a bone, the tendon is generally the weak point. In a growing child, it usually isn't — the growth plate is.
Growth plates are areas of developing cartilage near the ends of bones and at the points where large tendons attach. They're less able to tolerate repetitive traction than mature bone, which means that in children, repeated submaximal load tends to be absorbed at the growth plate rather than by the soft tissue around it.
That single fact explains a whole category of conditions that only exist in children. It also explains why the growth spurt is such a risk period: bones lengthen faster than muscles adapt, flexibility drops — reduced quadriceps flexibility during the growth spurt is one of the most consistently reported risk factors in the research — and load tolerance falls exactly when training volume is usually going up.
What We See, And What We're For
We are physiotherapists with a special interest in paediatric musculoskeletal problems, seeing school-age children and adolescents, roughly five to eighteen.
Common reasons families come to us:
- Knee pain, especially in sporting adolescents
- Heel pain in younger children
- Ankle, shin, hip, back and shoulder problems
- Sports injuries — sprains, strains and overuse
- Growth-related conditions including Osgood-Schlatter and Sever's disease
- Aches associated with hypermobility
- Getting back to sport safely after a fracture or injury
- Working out whether "growing pains" is actually the right explanation
Outside our scope, and referred on formally: babies and toddlers, developmental delay, neurological conditions, respiratory physiotherapy, and anything needing specialist paediatric or medical input. Nottingham has genuinely experienced specialist paediatric providers, and if your child needs one we'll tell you at the first appointment and write a referral letter. We'd rather send you to the right place than keep you in ours.
Osgood-Schlatter: What The Numbers Say
Pain and a tender lump just below the kneecap in a sporting adolescent. It's the most common knee condition in this age group, and the research base is unusually informative.
Prevalence sits around 10% overall but is far higher in active children. Studies comparing athletes with non-athletes have found roughly 21% versus 4.5% in one, and 22.8% versus 9.8% in another. In adolescent footballers it accounts for around 13.6% of all knee problems.
Timing is predictable. Boys typically become symptomatic between 12 and 15, girls earlier at 8 to 12, with symptoms first appearing at an average age of about 13.
Both knees is normal — it's bilateral in 20 to 30% of cases.
Duration is the part parents find hardest. Symptoms can persist 12 to 18 months and typically resolve as the skeleton matures. There is no treatment that meaningfully shortens that. But — and this is the number that changes the conversation — in a study of elite youth footballers with Osgood-Schlatter, 80% lost no training time at all despite having symptoms.
So the goal isn't to cure it. It's to manage load, build strength, control symptoms, and keep your child playing while their body finishes growing.
One honest caveat: a systematic review of conservative treatments for Osgood-Schlatter concluded that no good evidence exists specifically for exercise programmes in this condition. What we're working from is sound clinical reasoning and experience rather than trial data. Any clinic quoting you success rates for it is making them up.
Sever's Disease, And Why It Matters Later
Heel pain in children around 8 to 14, worse during and after running, often worst on hard ground or in football boots. Same mechanism as Osgood-Schlatter, different growth plate.
Here's the part worth knowing. A study of youth footballers found that a previous history of Sever's disease was strongly associated with later developing Osgood-Schlatter — a striking association even in a small sample.
If your child had heel pain a couple of years ago, calf and quadriceps flexibility and sensible load management through the growth spurt are worth attending to now, before the knee becomes the problem.
Is It Actually Growing Pains?
The classic picture: aching legs, often calves or behind the knees, late afternoon or evening, sometimes waking a child but gone by morning, with the child completely well and unrestricted the rest of the time.
Growing pains are diagnosed by excluding other explanations. That is genuinely what an assessment is for here. Not treatment — reassurance based on an actual examination, or, occasionally, the recognition that something else is going on.
Signs That Need A Doctor, Not A Physiotherapist
Part of our job is knowing when to step back. Contact your GP or seek urgent advice rather than booking physiotherapy if your child has:
- Night pain that consistently wakes them and isn't eased by rest
- Fever, weight loss, or being generally unwell alongside the pain
- A limp without an obvious injury — especially hip pain, or knee pain with restricted hip movement
- A hot, swollen joint, or stiffness worst first thing in the morning
- Back pain in a young child, or back pain with numbness, weakness or bladder changes
- Pain that doesn't fit a mechanical pattern and isn't settling
If any of these emerge during an appointment with us, we stop, explain why, and refer formally.
How Appointments Work
A parent or guardian stays for the whole session, every time.
We watch your child move — hopping, squatting, running where appropriate — and take a history from both of you. Growth, training volume, school sport, what's changed recently. Then we explain the findings to your child as well as to you, because a teenager who understands their own knee will actually do the exercises.
You leave with an explanation, a home programme, clear guidance on how much sport is safe now, and a realistic timeline. With your consent we'll write to your GP, PE department or club coach.
Pricing: initial assessment and treatment, 60 minutes, £65. Follow-ups, 30 minutes, £40.
Safeguarding
Every clinician seeing children at Iris Physio holds an enhanced DBS check including the children's barred list, and a parent or guardian stays for the entire appointment.
Do check this — with us and with any clinic you're considering. It's the standard advice given to parents booking children's physiotherapy, and any reputable practice will answer it happily.
Where We Are
Iris Physio's Nottingham clinic is at 354 Mansfield Road, Nottingham, NG5 2EF, on the main Mansfield Road corridor — easy to reach from Sherwood, Carrington, Mapperley, Basford, Forest Fields and Arnold, with families also travelling from West Bridgford, Beeston and across Nottinghamshire.
Clinic hours: Thursday 7am–8pm and Saturday 8am–2pm. Saturdays tend to work best around school.
No GP referral required, and we can usually see your child within three to five days.
Book Your AssessmentParents' Questions
School age to eighteen — roughly five to eighteen. We don't see babies, toddlers or developmental concerns; for those you'll want the NHS children's service or a specialist paediatric physiotherapist, and we'll point you in the right direction.
No, book directly. If your child needs GP or specialist input we'll arrange it formally in writing.
Yes — a parent or guardian stays for the entire appointment.
Usually not entirely. Most growth-related conditions are managed by adjusting load rather than stopping — 80% of young footballers in one study kept training throughout. We'll give you specific guidance for your child.
Often 12 to 18 months, generally settling as growth finishes. Physiotherapy improves symptom control and keeps them playing; it doesn't shorten the natural course. We'd rather set that expectation honestly at the start.
It might. A history of Sever's disease is associated with later Osgood-Schlatter, so it's worth addressing flexibility and training load through the growth spurt rather than waiting.
Often not, and it frequently responds well to targeted strength work. Worth assessing rather than assuming either way.
Loose clothing they can move in, shorts for lower limb problems, and bring the boots or trainers they play in if the pain is sport-related.
Yes — enhanced DBS with children's barred list, including for every clinician who sees children.
Yes, with your consent. Useful for PE adjustments and for managing training load with a coach.
Typically two to six for straightforward problems, with most of the work happening at home between visits.
We refer, formally and in writing. Nottingham has experienced specialist paediatric physiotherapy services and we'd rather you got to the right one quickly than stayed with us.