Does anyone have experience of heel pain in a very athletic child? severs disease?

[MrsShrek3]

have been trying to find out what is goig on with ds2, who is 10. severs disease sums his symptoms up perfectly. GP was disinterested told us to "keep an eye on him" when we went a few weeks ago. the pain is still there, sometimes tolerable for him and sometimes not he plays football around 5-6 sessions a week plus school PE and fwiw swimming lessons. we haven't (yet) reduced his sportimg activity. bare minimum he'd agree to without becoming seriously upset, would be 2 footy squad training and 1 league match each week, and swimming likely to do more good than harm? what should we do next?

I will be watching this thread! I also have DS (9) who plays 5x football per week and very sporty, always kicking a ball around. He has just started complaining of aching heels after playing football too. I had just presumed growing pains, hadn't thought it could be an actual condition!

www.socceru.com/heel_pain_soccer.htm
Just found this link on the Internet, it gives some suggestions for relieving the symptoms. Might be worth a try.

It looks as though it is kind of growing pains but they have a while to go before it goes away!

www.patient.co.uk/health/plantar-fasciitis-leaflet could it be this?]]

Do you have a Podiatry dept near you? You can normally self refer or go back to GP and ask them to refer you.

Hope your boys get treatment and feel better soon.

www.patient.co.uk/health/plantar-fasciitis-leaflet

My son was diagnosed with Severs when he was about 8. Was told it was to do with growth of foot plate and tendons not quite in synch. We were also told he would grow out of it by about 14. He's now almost 13, and it doesn't seem to trouble him any more.
Gel heel inserts really helped ( from Boots),
He was also told to do exercises stretching achilles tendon - standing on edge of stair and lowering heels, stretching muscle up the back of his leg. This also helped.
He's not very sporty at all, but long periods of time on his feet hurt, so tried to keep that to a minimum. Swimming was fine.

afromom, that link is the one I reax the other day to lead me to the current conclusions..It's so accurate that it's scary

thanks auntysib and Hee, think we might have another try with self ref to podiatry (my dd has been under orthotics all her life too) or head for the local walk in centre where the staff are a bit more clued up!

just wondering, is rest going to improve anything?

My dd has suffered with severs since she was 8 now 13 she's and elite gymnast and trains 30 hours a weeks and this does have a big impact on what she can do when she has a bout of severs it can last 2 weeks to 2 months and happens about twice a year. She ices her feet after training and uses tiger tape when training which helps. There's a you tube video that shows you how to tape the heels so they can carry on with there activities sorry dont now how to do a link but its easy to find .physio told me girls usually grow out of it between 13-14 and for boys it's a bit older.
Aunts sib it right its when the Achilles' tendon doesn't grow in time with the bones , the stretching exercises are good and icing and taping help, but rest is really the best thing.

Dd had terrible Servers and couldn't put her foot down properly for months. Rest, stretching and ice packs did little to help her. The only thing that really helped was for leg to be put in a cast, twice, both times for about 8 weeks. She has had no more pain since the last cast was removed. We were messed about by her GP which didn't help and prolonged her pain. GP eventually, after we mad a fuss, referred her to a paediatric physiotherapist, who then referred her to orthopaedic specialist. Specialist said she should have been referred much earlier, so don't let your DS's pain go on too long before making a fuss with GP. Dd's Achilles' tendon had almost pulled away from her heal.

DD seems to have grown out of it at the age of 14.