Hyperextension of the elbow

[laneyboo]

I don't post very often, so please bear with me on this. My daughter is 6 and has'hyperextension' of her elbows. I've always known about this, she was born with it, but I been asked today by her gymnastics coach, if she does any exercises for it as they are aware it can be dangerous in terms of her doing vaults etc. Its not something I've been too concerned about before as she is no where near a 'professional' standard and only trains for 1 hour per week. Does any one have any experience of this? I don't want to panic about it or make her worry, but I am starting to get more concerned especially after today as it it making me wonder if she has to be more careful at school, playing and doing sport. Sorry for the long post.

Have you checked to see if she's hypermobile elsewhere? Is she able to bend over and touch the floor whilst keeping her legs straight? Can her thumb bend downwards and touch her wrist? Does she normally sit in a W position (when she sits on the floor, legs infront of her but knees bent and outwards, making a W shape) You are better off taking her to the GP and asking for a physio assessment.

Thanks for the reply Belle. She is able to do all of those things! I will take her to the GP. I wasn't really sure what to ask for, and to be honest I didn't think they would be that concerned because it isn't an injury. She is really happy she is so 'bendy', but I just want to make sure she won't have any problems with injurys in the future

It's hard to say, she could do with a physio assessment to check what her range of movement actually is. Does she complain of any pain? Have you looked to see if she has flat feet?

I'm hypermobile, gymnastics was never a problem but I didn't try vaulting.

Actually you've just reminded me. She hasn't ever complained before except in the last week. She fell off a swing onto what seemed to be her hand. The swing wasn't going very high and she fell onto the special matting they have in parks. After a few tears she seemed, and said, she was fine, but she did complain of some pain in her elbow for a day. She doesn't have flat feet from what I can see, and no one has ever mentioned it when shes had shoes fitted. I am a bit clueless about this, and have tried to find more info, but everything talks about injurys and not possible injurys. Thanks so much for your advice, I'm going to speak to our GP.

Flat feet are sometimes not picked up when children have their shoes fitted, if you ask her to stand with no shoes and socks on then you can see if the arches fall, a normal foot will have an arch when people stand up. It's a positive sign that she's had no pain other then this and has had no dislocations whilst doing the gymnastics though.

I'll check her feet in a couple of days. Its good to know that its a positive sign she hasn't had something like a dislocation, which I'm starting to realise could happen quite easily. Feel a bit awful that I haven't done something about it before.

Just to reassure you, lots of people are hypermobile and experience no problems. I am very bendy, enjoyed gymnastics as a child and apart from being able to contort my body into odd positions, the only symptom of it has been a lot of very badly twisted ankles. Pregnancy has introduced its own issues (SPD), but physio is helping with that. Some people do have chronic pain from their hypermobility. But if she's been ok so far, that's a good sign.

Also, I didn't even realise I was "hypermobile" rather than just double jointed until I was in my 20s. My parents never did anything about it because it never presented any problems. Please don't feel awful!

Thanks MamaChris. Originally I didn't worry about it, I knew she had it, but as you say it didn't present a problem. I've just become more worried about it because I've been told by her gymnastics coach its particularly bad in her arms. I'll see how we get on with GP. Really appreciate both of you posting

I read your post and your concern concerning your daughters over extended elbows. I was born the same way and never had a problem with it. When I was young I could easily bend my arms backwards to the point I would have people convinced I had broken them. She just needs to learn to not extend her arm backwards past what would be considered a normal range. I'm a man in my 50's and I never had an issue. I actively participated in sports, took gymnastics and to this day I regularly work out with weights. I regularly bench well over two hundred pounds with no problem but like I stated, I learned not to lock my arms out completely. She should be fine.