Osgood–Schlatter disease

[devientenigma]

My dd is going for the xray to confirm Osgood?Schlatter disease. If anyone has a child with this, what does this mean for them?? Also dd is doing gcse sport and performing arts. The latter she had done for many years and this is the goal she is working towards...theatre!! She also does street dancing. However the Dr has said there would be no more dancing!!! Would this be right??.

Hi

Not much help but my mum has this and she is 66, never really caused her any problems as far as I am aware, she has a small lump just below her kneecap but other than that it's been fine. She is very active, walks a lot and does keep fit.

Am sure you have been given advice but here is a good article:

www.patient.co.uk/health/Osgood-Schlatter's-Disease.htm

Hope all goes well for your daughter x

I had it as a child, it was painful and is often said to be growing pains, but it is manageable. I can see why the Dr said no more dancing as this would be more comfortable for your daughter but ultimately I don't believe you can do lasting damage but I am not a Dr and if I am being honest Osgood gave me an excuse to take it a little bit more slowly.

My sister and one of my good friends both had this and I don't recall it causing either of them any major problems. Neither of them had a dance background though so I'm not sure if it would affect that.

I had this as a child. I danced very regularly at the time but had to take time out from this to allow my legs to heal. It left me with some spurs on the bone just below my kneecaps which can cause bruising if I kneel on hard surfaces.

However, once my legs had heeled, I went on to do a dance/performance arts degree. The only problems I had were bruising as mentioned above when doing floor work. I found wearing knee pads helped enormously.

I had this as a child. There's not much you can do about it other than to rest the injury for a month or so to give it a chance to recover.

The long-term outlook is good though. Osgood Schlatter disease is only really an issue during adolescence. Once you stop growing then the risk of it happening again pretty much disappears. You might be left with small lumps underneath the affected knee but it's not a problem.

My husband had Osgood-Schlatters in his teens. He was told just to rest it for several months, no impact exercise or running etc for about 6 months-12 months, which sorted it out and although he has the tell-tale bump under his knee it certainly doesn't cause any problems and he now runs maratahons and does tri-athlons etc, so clearly no long-term problems!! However hard it is for your DD to not do her favourite things for a few months, it's absolutely vital that you stop her. The 6 months-1 year or so rest will really settle it down and hopefully get rid of it. The best website for knee problems by far is www.kneeguru.co.uk which has loads of information and up to date forums about all knee problems including Osgood Schlatters. You could join the OS forum and chat to parents (and teenagers with the problem) who will be able to give you loads of details about what to expect. From reading about it on there myself in the forums it seems that people who go for surgery to try to speed up recovery and avoid the long-term abstinence from sports seem to regret it! Avoid unnecessary knee surgery like the plague! As someone who has had knee surgery (for something else) I would say, do not mess with your knees!! If your daughter is having knee problems now it doesn't necessarily mean she'll have a life-time of knee problems BUT if she over-uses them and doesn't rest to recover from this then she could really regret it.

One of my boys has this on one knee. I think it is important not to overstress and overstrain the knee, and do little to no heavy exercise for a while. Ours is okay but agony if it gets bashed by anything.

Thanks everyone!! I will look up the forums etc. She's been in pain since yesterday, however she was at stage school. Though I did tell her to take it easy!!

DD1 has this worse on her right knee than her left. First started when she was about 11 and doing a lot of ballet, which she was very good at and wanted to go down the ballet school route. It got to the point where she could barely walk at it's worst, she hd to be driven to school and drop all dancing and sport for 6 months.

She is 14 now and back dancing but only once a week and has had to give up her dreams of dancing professionally (which is good and bad in different ways).

Her knees flare up every few months and when they are bad she has to stop doing PE or ballet and takes large amounts of painkillers.

She has recently got orthotcs for her shoes which seem to be helping a lot. She has specific exercises and sees a physio every few months.

Hello fellow mums. I hope I can help you regarding The Strickland Protocol queries above. My name is Suzanne Powell and I run a web company. We have worked with Jenny Strickland and Bill Goldie for several years.

The Strickland Protocol definitely works, however spreading the word to GP's surgeries is a monotonous expensive task; the clinical trials have been done which makes it a scientifically proven cure. We are trying via the internet to raise awareness of the treatment.

There is an official website and an excellent facebook page which gives genuine unbiased feedback from parents; you can also post questions there for Jenny to answer. Good luck.

www.osgood-schlatter-disease.com/ is the official website where you can buy the manual (you can also get a free preview)
www.facebook.com/osgoodschlattersdisease is the facebook page