Osgood Schlatter

[pilates]

I think my 14 yr old son may have this. It is really getting him down as he plays a lot of football. Anyone got advice/suggestions. Is it better to rest or try and play through it?

Good to hear some positive stories 👍

OP, you are going to need to be careful here. As a sports mad teen I really wouldn't have trusted myself not to just play through the pain rather than stopping - indeed I did so on a few occasions. You feel like you don't want to give up your fun, you don't want to look weak, and your mates are relying on you. Playing through this if it hurts is the absolute worst thing to do - make sure your DD knows and understands the significant risks.

13 year old DS has it. Diagnosed by GP. He plays a lot of football but sometimes has to miss it and PE if he’s in too much pain.

He finds that rest, ice, hot water bottle and ibuprofen helps his pain.

just a word of warning.
dc had suspected os. but it turned out to be a form oseomyelitis (inflammation of the bone).
you need imaging/a physio who can feel the affected area to diagnose.

Thanks jean, will relay this to him.

Has anyone any information on a patella band and if they are any good to wear whilst playing sport?

Do you ice before or after sport?

My DS has it and had to see a consultant. Apparently their ligaments can't catch up with the speed of bone growth. It vanished without trace as soon as it started . Lasted two years in total. A podiatrist helped to support his feet better and he pretty much continued with sport. Long walks were a problem.

DD wears two different types: full-length leather ones in her school shoes and half-length ones in her trainers. To be honest, it was a case of trial and error to see what I could find in town when we were shoe shopping!

The leather ones I bought from our local cobblers for about £15-20. I had to trim them down slightly.

The other ones I bought from Boots:
www.boots.com/boots-regular-orthotic-small-10146913

It’s made a huge difference to her knee pain.

PS I initially asked at a foot clinic but custom-made ones are much more expensive. The physio recommended we try off-the-shelf ones as she thought they would be just as good for DD as her pronation was only mild. If they hadn’t worked then I would have gone with custom ones.

Thank you so much and for the link 👌

I had it, undiagnosed for a long time though, and have always had the lumpy bumps under my kneecap since. Have never been able to kneel properly due to the pain. I'm 43 now and broke my left kneecap nearly ten years ago and had to wear a full leg cast for six weeks. Obviously I didn't use the left at all during that time and had to go very carefully on it for a while afterwards, but resting that leg all that time left the OS bump under my left knee much, much smaller and it has never grown back since. The pain also lessened dramatically, so my experience is that even short term rest can make a real long term difference.

My 12 year old very sporty DD has had them for nearly 18 months. She saw GP, then a Consultant and had a scan. He said it tends to last 2 years at the peak stage of their growing. He said there shouldn’t be long term issues. Rest, ibprofen and ice. She stopped gymnastics as the landings were causing the worst pain. Still does her other sports. He said teenagers very bad for wearing orthotics so better to go to a proper sports shop and talk to the staff about getting a supportive pair of running trainers (she lives in trainers outside school). Yes, the trainers were more expensive but they helped the most.