Lowry O'Mahony

I remember the same thing happened to me and I grew a lot between 11 and 14 and then again at 16.

Yeah, so for girls, the major growth period will be kind of like 11 to 12.

And so you're going to see the biggest changes in growth for them there.

Generally, they'll have stopped growing around 16.

So I suppose like as a parent, you just have to judge that yourself or else maybe speak to your GP first.

I wouldn't recommend being in a position where you're having to give your child pain relief every single night.

But I would say that, you know, some of these symptoms, you know, if you can reduce their symptoms with pain relief and if they're gone the following day, then I think that that's something that, you know, as a parent, if you're happy with that, that's fine.

And a quick one.

Now, you're being asked to make a judgment call here, Larry, for an 11, 13 and 16 year old training for swimming five hours and 10 hours a week, respectively.

So I'd say the younger ones are doing five and the 16 year old is doing 10, as well as one soccer training and a match per week.

Is that too much?

I would say that it's a lot, but also we have to look at it in the context of how much exercise has that person been doing for a while.

They do not train hard for five days a week.

And this is their job, OK, to absolutely perform at their best.

So I think how can we expect a 10 year old to maybe have hard training sessions seven days a week and still perform?

So I would kind of use that as a little bit of a guide.

Make sure you're getting some rest days.

That's good advice, Larry.

Thank you so much.

That's Larry O'Mahony, who is a physiotherapist.