Osgood Schatter - Knackered Knees. Anyone?

[EccentricaGallumbits]

DD is 13 and has Osgood Schlatter Disease (fancy name for knackered knees).

She does ballet and has already had to reduce her lessons from 3 times to once a week and had to give up any chance of taking it further (she was rather good).

She took up football a few months ago and is now finding that her knees are playing up again.

She is getting very very fed up. She has to take pain killers every time she does any sort of activity and uses ice packs before and after ballet or football.

Google hasn't been much help - apparantly she'll grow out of it when she stops growing.

Just wondering really if anyone elses children have had similar and what you have found to help?

[louii]

My younger brother had this, used to get flare ups of it, had a lump below his knee cap. He did indeed grow out of it, was unable to do much sports though.

He was recently diagnosed with osteoporosis (at 28 years old), don't know if there is a link betwen the two, but i would maybe make sure she is getting plenty calcium in her diet.

Sorry not much help.

[EccentricaGallumbits]

ouch - your poor brother.

DD doesn't eat much of anything with calcium in .
will force some in. thanks.

[HellBent]

My brother has this too, did the doctor diagnose it? I'm only asking as my brother has lumps under his kneecaps so it could be something else if she doesn't have lumps. My brother is going to America next year on a football scholarship so you shouldn't need to worry about giving up the ballet unless it is too painful for her to continue. C+Ped from a website -

• You do not usually need to stop sport. However, easing off strenuous or vigorous sport may be sensible for a while until the pain eases to a tolerable level. Let the pain be your guide. Play sport only to a bearable level of pain. Avoid heavy sport activities if the pain is bad. Consider a complete break from sport for a while if pain remains bad.
  
• An ice pack applied below the kneecap for about 5 minutes before and after exercise may prevent some inflammation and pain.
  
• Consider wearing knee pads during sports such as football and rugby to protect the tender area.
  
• Consider seeing a physiotherapist for advice on exercises to strengthen the quadriceps muscles.

[eastendmummy]

I had this and found out at about 13. My knees have never been good and they creak and ache quite a lot (I'm only 29). I wish though that I'd kept on doing sports as I think that part of the problem is that they aren't very strong due to sitting out PE for 2 years at school. I work on them in the gym which has helped and the best thing I did was stop horse riding which really makes them hurt. I think that you should definitely get her to eat more calcium plus also keep encouraging her to play sports so that she strengthens the ligaments and tendons in the knee.

I hope she does grow out of it.

[HellBent]

Also just to say he finds sticky magnets on his knees help to reduce symptoms on his days off or after training

[EccentricaGallumbits]

yes - she has massive lumps, particularly her right knee. noticable even through trousers. Saw a Dr 2 years ago when she had to drop some of her ballet classes because it was just too painful. It does come and go so i suppoe she'll have to just put up with it. might look into magnets though and forcefeed the calcium..

[choppychopster]

My sister had it as a teenager and also grew out of it. Can't advise much on how to handle doing sports with it as she hated PE and always seemed to use it as an excuse to bunk off.

[bogie]

I played ice hockey when I was younger and I had this, just keep doing what your doing really plenty of painkillers. it's not very nice

[MumOfTwoToo]

My ds and a couple of his sporty friends have this too. The doctor seemed to think it was very common at this age. When I have mentioned it to other parents several of the dads said that they had it as children, but have no problems now. I found that reassuring as some of the websites seemed scary. Two of us bought neoprene knee splints and my ds's goes below the knee. I bought the PST Medium OS Strap from this site. [www.osgood-schlatter.com/product.html]] (I was told that if you buy a full knee splint that it should be the one with the round hole over the kneecap). Another Mum was was getting physiotherapy for her ds. Twelve months on my Ds seems to be improving, but found running very difficult for the first few months.

[MumOfTwoToo]

Sorry www.osgood-schlatter.com/product.html

[mustrunmore]

My exh had this till he was about 15 apparently, but he was totally rid of it when we met at 17, and he's now a big cheese in the kung fu world and v fit, no problems.

[FimbleHobbs]

Quite a few of the boys at school had this - they were all the cool sporty ones.

Sorry not a very helpful post unless your DD would like to know that she has a very fashionable problem.

[maybebaby23]

I had this too!! I remember how painful it was..but i did grow out of it. Hope your DD can keep up with her activities, i bet she is very fed up of having to take painkillers all the time