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The thing you worry about in the younger child is the triradiate cartilage in the acetabulum. It is usually a Salter I or II injury, occasionally a crush injury. Now you are not going to see a crush injury on the film, it is only going to be with follow-up. So if you think there has been a acetabular injury, it behooves you in one year to get a follow-up x-ray to make sure that the triradiate cartilage hasn't closed.
The key question - always a test question when they get on this subject - At what age does it matter if you damage your triradiate ?
The triradiate cartilage closes at about age 12 in girls and at age 14 in boys. So you may have to depend on whether it is a girl or a boy. But if you are under the age of 10, and you have damaged the triradiate cartilage you are going to end up with a shallow dysplastic acetabulum because the triradiate is responsible for the growth of the depth of the acetabulum. So they use age 10 as sort of the cut off, 10 or 11.
Dennis Devito, MD
Maine Orthopaedic Review 1998