Sever's disease

[whatreallymatters45]

Haven't taken my son to the doctors yet but he has been getting sore heals .....generally after sport and running around. I googled the symptoms and came up with several possibilities one of which is Sever's disease. Symptoms match with the difficulties my son has been experiencing. I have made an appointment with the GP but suspect getting a referral, if necessary, won't be quick.In the interim has anybody else had a child with this? I understand there are supports that can be worn around the foot and shoes that are more supportive than others. My son is not over weight and is fairly active. He has grown a lot lately so he is probably in the midst of a growth spurt. He is tall and quite big for his age.

9yo DD has this earlier this year. I ended up skipping the GP (didn't think it warranted an urgent, same day appt and there were never any regular appt), asked around for recommendations of a children's physio and went straight to her. She diagnosed it was Sever's, it was early enough (and DD was resilient enough) that she didn't have to give up her sports but did introduce a lot of stretching and I massaged her legs for 10 mins every night. After about 3mths, she was fine and now only feels uncomfortable if she runs 5km or so. I think one of the big changes for her was getting permission to wear trainers to school as she is always running at break times and traditional "girls'" school shoes are ridiculously unsupportive and, although she had decided she would start wearing "boys'" shoes but her legs were so bad at the time I risked the trainers.

My DD first had this issue just before she was 8, very similar to your son, painful heels especially after sports or general activities.
The pain was also unbearable if the sides of her heels were pressed.
Gp referred us to the physio at a local hospital, I gave it 2 weeks then called as she could barely walk without pain and was seen a few days later.
We were told no activity for 6 weeks including running around at playtime to allow the inflammation to settle, along with stretching and massaging as due to the pain she had started walking on her toes which meant the calfs were really tight and she was caught in a bit of a loop not wanting to put her heels down.
That was in the January, it was probably March/April before she could resume all her usual activities as she plays rugby, but general pe she was back too by end of Feb.

As with the above post she would wear trainers to school for a while, and then if she wore her school shoes she would take trainers in case.
You can get heel cushions in most sports shops which did help and she still uses them now.

It is all about the growth spurts so it can flare up anytime between now and when the growth plates in the heels fuse at around 15 I think.

Definitely worth getting seeing a physio , either through GP or direct if you are able to.

Thanks for that I think I will take the same route and find a children's physio. I really would prefer it if my son didn't have to forgo sport. He is energetic and he finds it hard when he doesn't get an opportunity to use excess energy.

One thing I've remembered is that traditional calf stretches can exacerbate the problem so don't do them!
Seeing the physio was really interesting as she pointed out a few things with DD's gait that I'm not sure anyone else would notice but which, if worked on now, should save her aggravation when older.

The physio said that she really tries hard not to restrict activities in children but in some cases carrying on can do more harm, in Severs bone spurs can form on the heels where the muscles and tendons pull on the bone.
It's not ideal but depending on the severity it might be best for a short time.
Swimming would be a good alternative to Hurn off energy, that's one thing DD didn't have to stop, it's not an impact sport and actually helped as the water was a bit of a relief.

I know nothing about Servers, but just in case another pov helps, i remember at about that age both me and at least half my friends had intermittently painful heels. We discussed it a lot - somebody called it “hollow heels”. It passed after a few months by itself and i concluded in retrospect it was probably a weird growing pain.

Took my son to the physio today and the physiotherapist confirmed that the problem was severs disease. He has given me several exercises to do with him: heel raises on a step, sitting whilst straightening the foot towards the ceiling and back to an horizontal position and raising and lowering heels into a tiptoe position on the floor. He also recommended using an ice pack to decrease the inflammation nightly.
I need to take my son back in three weeks, by which time the physio said there should be an improvement in mobility and flexibility and a decrease in inflammation and pain. He has not ruled out participation in any sport but said to avoid jumping and over doing it.
He has recommended I buy some Aetrex insoles. They are £50. Has anyone else used these and were they beneficial?

Ds (12) has had Severs for 3 years. It comes and goes to some extent depending on growth spurts. The things that have helped are

1. Permanent gel heel insoles in his shoes/trainers
2. Ibuprofen before any PE or exercise if he’s had any pain recently.
3. Rest from PE if they are going through a bad patch.