question about painful ribs (upper abs, i think)

[threenorns]

a couple of times, saari has complained that her "ribs are broken".  when i poke around, it seems to me that it's right at the bottom of the sternum that it hurts.  i used to be a powerlifter so i'd put money on it being the attachment for her upper abs.

take her out of her skates and in about five minutes she's fine and ready to go back on the ice and there's no DOMS.

could this indicate weak abs?  i saw some exercises she could do that are designed to exercise the muscles used in skating in chain (really, about the only one i'd be comfortable letting her try is to skate around while doing half-squats with her arms held out to the sides, then out to the front, then going up and down - as in, as she squats down, her arms go up and vice versa).  i think this would be more fun for her than making her lie down and "give me twenty!!!!!" ab crunches.

another thought is that she still gets quite "flail-y" with her upper body when she gets tired, frustrated, or distracted - could the lack of upper body control be doing this?

[sampaguita]

Hmm why would the bottom of the sternum hurt? I used to have weak abs and those didn't hurt while skating...maybe it's something else? A doctor might be able to give something more concrete and reliable...

[threenorns]

i did last time this happened but he couldn't find anything wrong since it wasn't hurting any more.

[rachelplotkin]

Perhaps as assessment by a physical therapist would be in order?  Watching what she is doing and how she is doing it prior to when it hurts would be helpful is assessing what the problem is.

[nicklaszlo]

It's possible to get a cartilage injury near the sternum, which can be aggravated by spins.

[Isk8NYC]

The OP's dd is a toddler who falls constantly, so it's not from spins.

[threenorns]

she doesn't do spins (yet - but i see her working it out in her own mind:  she's making her twirl stops faster and harder and sometimes she'll lift one knee to 90degr before bringing it down for a full stop).

she's not a toddler - she'll be 6yrs old on the 16th and she doesn't fall constantly any more.  that day,  she fell 4 times in an hour and all on her butt.  once,  she wasn't looking where she was going and scared herself when she looked forward and realized she was heading to the board, once when she was doing her noodling around on one foot, and twice when she hit the defect in the ice from the hockey net.   she's had this pain before when we were skating down in brampton - it started about 10min after she got on the ice, and was gone about 5min after i took her skates off and she went back on the ice again with no problem.

the BIG problem is she is not adept at explaining things.  she says a pain in her ribs but when she was 4yrs old, she came home from day care complaining about a sore ankle, saying she'd slid off the ladder in the playground.  day care staff confirmed, but said that had happened two days before and meanwhile she had a whacking big bruise on her shoulderblade from where a little boy basically took a bite out of her.  the only reason we knew which little boy it was was bec he bit another little girl on her arm and the tooth marks were identical (but poor little thing was bawling her eyes out, naturally).   it was solid black with vivid red tooth marks, it was that hard, yet saari never said a word when it happened and it was nearly healed when she suddenly announced indignantly "mason BIT me!!!!!  he's mean!". 

i guess i was wondering if this is something skaters experience when they first start or if it's another one of her little oddities.

i'm going to start jotting notes - i'm thinking, and i THINK - but can't be sure - that the ice was very crowded when she got the pain.  it could be an anxiety thing, not even a physical thing, which would explain why it vanishes so quickly and completely (bec even it was simply overuse of the muscle, it should be tender on contact at least the next day - not totally pain free ten minutes later).

[hopskipjump]

No, no pain there from my skater.  She had a harness injury but that was easily seen when it happened and clearly the pain was from it.

I'd call the ped and let him know she still complains.