Try and get your son to take baby strides - really short ones and see if his leg hurts when he does it. I suspect he may be over-striding in trying to keep up with his Dad! A side effect of shortening your stride is that you reduce the braking effect of a heel into the ground in front of you - it is this that causes the pain.

It might also be worth checking inside his trainers - are they still supportive enough for young bones?

Get him to do little drills over 6 or 7 sticks laid about 30cm apart - fast land in; kick heels up; fast out. Tell him it is what the Premier football players do (insert favourite team as appropriate)! he must short stride to do this and it could be fun.

Good luck Dad!

I've suffered a lot with shin splits for many years.  lot's of different theories tell me there are no definitive answers but I can confidently state that in my case at least shin splints has nothing to do with one's shins...  It's the calves that are the problem.

Break down any lumps with soft tissue masssage (hard to do calves on a foam roll but you can do it yourself with your hands), GENTLY stretch out calves a few times a day and all will be fine.

good luck!

Hi Rod,

Sorry that you're lad is suffering at such a young age, you certainly starting him off right with slowly building the mileage up and running on easier surfaces.

Try taking him to a podiatrist as this will assess his running gait, which can be a cause of shin splints.

Darren

Does anyone have any advice about shin splints in children? My son who is 8 was running regularly with me, building up to the point where he was running typically between 2 & 3 miles several times a week. Although we tried to run somewhat off road, at least half of the time this was on hard pavements. He developed shin splits in one of his legs which caused him too much pain to now run more than about half a mile. Despite resting it for weeks at a time, every time he has tried to build up the distance again (now almost entirely running on the grass) the shin splints comes back.

He is frustrated as he enjoys running and is good at it and I would hate for him to lose this enthusiasm.

Any advice appreciated

Rod Harrington