Calcaneal Apophysitis/Severs Disease

[MyFullHouse]

Has anyone else dealt with this? (No results in a search)

My 11.5 yo was just diagnosed today after limping out of baseball practice last week. He's on 2 weeks rest (1 with crutches) and then a follow up appointment. I've been googling, but all the information on management seems so vague. He's devastated to be missing out on the rest of baseball season, and now I'm worried about whether or not he should be allowed to play fall ball.

Generally speaking, he is not an active child, and baseball has been the one thing he actually loves! We were just starting to see hints of muscle in our skinny little man!

They say it's not unusual in pre/young teens, but I've never heard of it.

Any advice/anecdotes would be greatly appreciated!

[Mirzam]

Yes. My 10 yo son is an elite soccer player and had a mild case following way too much soccer over the winter. We were able to manage it with having him ice his foot after games/practice (keeping both to a minimum), having him do stretching exercises as often as possible, but especially before games or practice, special insoles for his soccer cleats and only have him wear cleats when he absolutely had to. He only wore cleats during games, for practice, especially on artificial turf, he wore turf shoes. We did these things with him for about six weeks. He is now completely better. We do know of another player on another team who had a much more sever case at the same time and he was in a cast for 6 weeks. He seems fully recovered now, as he was playing in a soccer tournament this past weekend and was running just fine. So once the pain is gone, I see no reason why your DS can't play in the fall. It is common in young athletes and the key really is to get them to stretch as much as possible. FWIW, my son never missed any soccer games but did practice far less, ie once a week instead of six or seven times.