mysonsacatcher posted:My son is 13 and is in the midst of an 8 week shut down due to little league elbow (medial epicondyle growth plate). This is the third time he has had to be shut down from throwing. The most recent shut down was about 2 years ago. We thought we had fully recovered from this the second time but apparently not. Who out here has dealt with this multiple times and when did it finally end and were there any lingering affects?
He may very well have fully recovered until it happened again.
Make sure he is seeing a sports ortho, they are generally better than a genetic ortho. They have seen this more and therefor have more experience. I saw the most arm issues in 12u-13u. It seemed like a kid a week was unable to pitch. I also saw several go down with growth plate issues because of how they were throwing compounded with how they were growing. Have you had his mechanics evaluated?
Also, some kids are just stretchier than others. I've heard of not one, not two, but THREE cases where the hip growth plate caused the kids to be on crutches for more than a month, and that was just from running. One kid refused to listen to his body and the hip growth plate actually fractured. He was out for 3 months.
There isn't really a great amount you can do to stop this from happening, but your son recognizing the pain and stopping will go a long way in keeping him healthy.