PUBLISHED 04/25/2007
Q: When should I trade in my child's light-up Elmo sneakers for real running shoes?
A: Once children reach school age (5 or 6) and are doing any kind of structured running, they should be fitted for appropriate running shoes at a specialty running store. Brenda Armstrong, M.D., requires all the kids with the Durham Striders youth track club in North Carolina to wear regulation running shoes. "Between ages 6 and 12, children's feet do not grow at the same pace," says Dr. Armstrong. "One foot is always bigger than the other." Lack of proper shoe support can lead to shinsplints and ankle problems. Many running-shoe companies make adult-model running shoes in youth sizes. Prices generally range from $40 to $60. For brands and models, go to runnersworld.com/kidshoes.
Q: Is it okay to give my child over-the-counter medicine for running pain?
A: No. As children grow they sometimes experience pain when running. When they do, they should modify their exercise until the pain goes away. "Some kids try to run through pain, but they shouldn't," says Teri McCambridge, M.D., chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. Unlike adults, who often experience minor muscle aches that they can run through, children most likely get pain from their bones--their weakest part--and shouldn't be given medicine in order to run.
Q: Can intense training affect my adolescent daughter's development?
A: Yes. Adolescent girls who train heavily tend to be ultrathin with low body fat. "They burn more than they eat," says Mona Shangold, M.D., director of the Center for Women's Health and Sports Gynecology in Philadelphia, "and this calorie deficit delays puberty, which leads to deficient estrogen production." Girls deficient in estrogen do not build as much bone as they should, leading to stress fractures and future osteoporosis, among other problems.
Ultimately, Dr. Shangold stresses the importance of parental supervision: "Parents need to encourage their daughters not to become obsessed with exercise or thinness. And all children's growth should be checked regularly by their pediatrician."
Q: Should kids under 18 go 26.2?
A: Last March, close to 2,800 middle school and high school kids, ages 11 to 18, ran the Los Angeles Marathon as part of a program geared primarily for inner-city at-risk youth. In Students Run L.A., students train for months with volunteer coaches at 150 schools and must complete an 18-mile race. "The kids gain health and maturity, and finishing the marathon has a rippling effect," says teacher Paul Trapani, one of the program creators. "The marathoners' high school graduation rate averages more than 90 percent in an area where the norm is 60 percent."
Trapani also points to the kids' 99 percent finishing rate, higher than that for adults. "We see very few kids with medical problems on race day," says Rudra Sabaratnam, M.D., medical commissioner for the marathon. Bill Roberts, M.D., medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon, has also seen a couple hundred kids run his marathon each year without incident. "I've kept medical records for 25 years," he says. "In that time, only one youngster needed care for a minor problem."
Yet some doctors feel that youths can derive the same benefits from running shorter distances with much less risk of injury. Stephen Rice, M.D., coauthored a 2003 article in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine arguing against young marathoners. He believes that the combination of kids' growing musculoskeletal systems and the repetitive trauma of running a marathon increases their risk of injury. "Why push the envelope?" he says. "Kids can run 5-Ks and 10-Ks."
Lyle Micheli, M.D., director of sports medicine at Children's Hospital of Boston, agrees with Dr. Rice and encouraged the Boston Marathon to institute its age requirement of 18. "When a youngster's body is still growing," says Boston's executive director Guy Morse, "then the strain of the marathon is magnified. Play it safe. There's no need to rush it."
