This is a fact that is going to be hard to change. That is the bad news. The good news is that when a young person s injury results in a broken bone, in most cases it is going to heal much faster and better than it would in a skeletally mature person. Until this point, bone proteins are arranged in a way that makes them more flexible than they will be later, and so kid s bones tend to bend more before they break or fracture. Children s bones continue to grow until skeletal maturity is reached.
Lengthwise growth occurs at specific areas, the epiphyses, located at each end of the long bones.
Because the epiphysis is made of cartilage, not calcified bone, it is weaker than the hard parts of the bone, and equally important, it is weaker than the adjoining ligaments that transmit force from the muscles and help support the joints. Growth plate fractures can be minor or severe, and often they cannot be seen on x-ray pictures. The most serious problem with a fracture at or near an epiphysis is that the bone growth might be disturbed or even stopped altogether. Bones are covered with a close-fitting sheath called the periosteum. In children, the periosteum is a thick, tough, flexible layer that tends to hold the bone together after a fracture-causing incident.