Osgood - Schlatter

Why is he playing !!!!!!!!!!!!


Rest is the key here !!!!


a 2012 !!!!--Let the kid be a kid and do not risk damage that can be permanent

Just my thoughts

TRhit, All of his coaches know that he has this condition and does not have to perform any sprint drills or any other type of drill that can cause adverse affects for him in the long run. I have consulted with our Doctor, who fortunately is very much into the athletic side of medicine. He did say if it was getting worse or hurt during none physical activity that I was to stop and let him rest. Trust me, my initial plan was to keep him out of all sports for that whole year, but fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, Drew was recruited to come to this new baseball team that had some of the best kids in his area on it and he was really proud that he was asked to be a part of it and that was when I actually had the long talk with the Doctor to make sure it was ok and he told me what to watch for and everything should be alright by minimizing stressful actions on a repeated basis.

Sports, as I think we can all atest too, is function that not only allows for a better physical presense but it allows for bonding time for young kids that doesn't really exist outside of a sporting environment. Taking this environment away from him, I am will to do, but if their is a chance to keep him in an environment that he loves and I think is good for his character, I will do that first. Just my thoughts and thanks for the reply.

Out of curiosity what experience do you have with this condition and what did you see done to combat it.

O-S is an inflamation of the growth plate located at the tibial tubercle (top of shin bone). The worst thing to do is attempt to "play through the pain". Any activity that doesn't cause pain is OK. Basketball is the worst because of repetitive pounding from running on hardwood. Limit activities to those which aren't painful and wait until he's done with his growth spurt.

Recent research indicates that low activity may actually help the condition. Low activity includes walking and day-to-day activities.

High activity or explosive and impact movements have the potential to cause growth plate damage. I have to say, that I would be very careful.

My son has had this "condition" since about 12 yrs of age. It became too painful to continue in basketball at 13-14 or catching in Baseball.
He had a spill on the court that sent us to the 2nd orthopedist & put him in a knee immobilizer for months. Absolute rest! No stress, as it could possibly tear the ligament from the shin bone.( which would result in surgery!) His Coaches didn't like it, but that's life.

He's now about to be 17, still has a huge lump.
Misses playing basketball, but has become a great pitcher, so he's real happy.
Listen to your son's Doctor, REST that knee & avoid the stressful aspects of sports until he has finished with the growth spurt.
Advil or aleve will help with the pain.
And, I've got a wonderful brace I'd loan you!

While I understand your premise of keeping your son involved I would caution that by doing so you may be running the risk of a more intense form of damage....rest is imperative with this condition...icing is indicated....and after the rest a stringent form of stretching is required prior to playing again...there are other impairments that can result if rest is not adhered to that may limit your sons ability to play at all down the road...also to those who utilize the use of OTC(over the counter ) medications:

1. they must be given with food or milk...they can wreck havoc with the stomach
2. Advil is the same as generic ibuprofen...do not think you are administering 2 different forms of medication... they are the same
3.there is school of thought that indicates that by premedicating a person prior to an activity you run the risk of masking pain and hence further damage may result because the person does not feel the increase in pain...
FYI...most drugs have a trade name...which is the name utilized exclusively by the drug company that invented the drug...
the generic name is utitilized by all other drug companies producing the drug and usually is much cheaper....all trade names list the generic name on the label pay close attention to that name when purchasing any over the counter drugs....several years ago I had a friend whose baby had a fever and she was administering Advil and ibuprofen at the same time...completely unaware that she was double dosing her baby....could have been disasterous if she had continued

Brute66 is absolutely correct - basketball is the WORST thing any OS patient could play. On my son's college team the boys aren't allowed anywhere near a basketball court near the season. Please make sure you are consulting good orthopedists and restrict his sports to baseball, period, if that's what he wants to do. Good luck.

our eldest son had this when he was in the 7th grade..after consulting an orthopedic dr, he said to take him out of P.E. and everything..at the time, he was playing s****r and the coach put him at goalie so he wouldn't be running alot...we let him finish s****r season and then sent doctor's note to school informing them he was to sit out and the PE teacher had a fit...anyway, son was out of PE, Little Dribbler basketball - the whole nine yards until May of that year. He didn't like it, but we didn't want him on crutches (like a friend of his was who also had OS) or hurt...his knees still have big knobs in them today and he is 21...its a very tough decision to make and its really hard on the young guys because they are trying to fit in...people don't understand this condition and they can be mean about it...I've heard other kids make it just fine with knee braces etc but really think it is up to you and your child to make the decision.

My son had a bout with O-S.

We treated it with:
- Some rest, but in terms of a few weeks. Not a year. He continued playing baseball, but took it easy in practice (no running) for a few weeks.
- Stretching & heat before activity.
- Patella brace during activity.
- Ice after activity, along with an anti-inflammatory (may habe been Aleve, don't recall now).

It went away after about a month or so.

It has flared up slightly twice in the past two years. At the first sign, he used the patella brace & iced after activity. Both times it passed very quickly and was very mild.

I was diagnosed at around 12. I am 47. I have severe Osgood-Schlatters on both knees. The "bump" on my right knee can be seen anytime I sit down. REST YOUR CHILD!

We have a very good gymnast in our area who is in the 7th grade. She was just diagnosed. Bless her Parents, they removed her from competition. She still goes to practice but mostly does tumbling and knows she is being shutdown for awhile.

Believe me, the pain, when bumped will only get worse. At time, when someone bumps mine, I want to break out in tears.

I don't typically jump into threads that have reached a consensus opinion with all responses beginning to sound like skips in a broken record, BUT:

I had this same ailment as a young teenager. Rest is the only cure I know. I lost 1 - 1.5 yrs of youth sports. So what. In retrospect it was a very short period of time. My doctor told me to join the swim team. No stress on the knee.

Please reconsider your decision and rest your son until the OS condition has passed.

There must be a great deal of variety in the severity of this condition. By some accounts, my son should be crippled for life by now.

Perhaps the difference is in how early the condition is detected & treated.

Texan,
The primary difference in severity has more to do with speed/rate of growth. My son didn't slow down growing for a 2 year stretch...1/4-1/2" a month. Ortho said that the amount of growth added to strenuous activity aggravates it. It's tender from time to time. It was REAL painful when a bad hop hit it!!
Some folks get thru it easier than other, some never have another problem with it after they stop growing...Some never develope the problem in the first place...Different for everyone...

Both my sons had OS in both knees. Very painfull. They only did the sports that didn't require jumping up and down, skiing was fine, and to a limited extent baseball. If the knees hurt badly and swelled then they stopped right away and rested and iced. The ski coach recommended a cream called Topricin CTS, an anti inflammatory pain relief cream which you can only buy over the internet. They rubbed it in 3 or 4 times a day and it really helped. After about 6-9 months the OS cleared and now no sign of it.

My son had a bout with it. It lasted about 6 months. He pretty much played with it but didnt push it. It went away and hasnt had any problems since. It usually comes on in the first 1st growth spurt of puberty. Hope this helps

Man, to answer another post on this board about "What makes this site so great?", the shear number of active members with an enormous wealth of information and advice that they are willing to share. Absolutely incredible!

Brief history of my son's OS. At the beginning (before diagnosis) it was very painful, and to be completely honest I thought he was giving me excuses for not hustling during a basketball game when he first started telling me that his knees hurt. It took a full week of complaining for me to finally see that little bump forming below his knee cap (trust me, I never felt so low in my entire life after I found out he wasn't just making excuses - first lesson learned). He said he fell at school, so that is what we initially thought the problem was and he just had a bruised bone and that was why it was so painful to touch the little bump. We iced it down and everything was ok by the next day. It wasn't until his next basketball game that it started hurting again (This goes to show how bad basketball really is for this condition untreated, just like most of you have stated). This is when we went to the Doctor's office that following Monday. As soon as Drew lifted his pant's leg to reveal his bump, the Doctor immediately told me he had Oshgood - Schlatter "DISEASE!". He saw my eyes open wider than some cartoon character and my mouth drop to the floor, he laughed and said it was a very common "CONDITION". They should never put the word "Disease" on a "Condition", especially if it is something dealing with your siblings, just my thoughts. Anyways, he told me that Drew could try and finish out the season in basketball, unless it started hurting at any point he should stop put ice on it. He was also not allowed to do any sprint work during his baseball practices with his new team and he could no longer do any catcher's work (His new team wanted to make him into the back up catcher). This all came fast and suddenly (within a two week period: from initial accounts of pain to doctors recommendations). During the following week, Drew was snow sledding and injured his wrist (we would later find out he fractured it the following week). He tried to play in the next basketball game but before he even got through the first half of the game, I noticed him starting to give way on his left knee. I told the coach and he pulled Drew, and after I lectured him on the importance of be honest about when he started feeling the pain in his knee, he told me how bad his wrist hurt. Well, we visited the Doctor again on the following Monday to find out he had a fracture in his wrist. He got his cast and that was the last of the basketball game of the season for him. (Blessing in disguise!) It also minimized nearly every exercise at his baseball practice (another blessing in disguise). So he basically, had a forced rest period during the initial phases of this condition forming, which by our account so far was the most painful. He had some flair up's during the baseball season, especially in the start of it but over the entirety of our 60+ game season it was managed really well. The times that it hurt the most and he was taken out of games was when contact was made with the "bump". This was by far the worst times for him. This was reasoning behind allowing him only the choice of either football or basketball the following season, although constant running had aggrevated it during spot times during the season it was basically contact that made things the worst. The running or jumping caused the inflammation and that was contolled adequetly by the use of Aleve prior to games, just as our doctor had said it would. He was able to play FallBall just fine, except for one time when he fell on his knee and he again was in pain. This basketball season has gone pretty good so far, with the addition of the padded knee, which also minimizes inflammation. There is nothing we can do about his bump, like most of you have stated, this will be their for the rest of his life and doesn't seem to have gotten any bigger in the past few months.

Here is a brief lessons learned from this past year:

1. Listen to your children when they are hurting. Don't baby 'em but listen.
2. The initial rest period I think was very important (even though we were actually forced into it by a well timed broken wrist)
3. Use of an anti-inflammatory was very helpful in continuing in every sports activity.
4. The worst part of this condition is the pain that comes from contact with the "bump". This can happen during even normal activities and is inevitable but minimizing the chances is important and have some ice ready for when it does happen.

Holy smokes that was a long post, Sorry guys

I had it and have the knots to prove it. I won't be playing "bucking horse for grandkids ".

I played three sports 9-12 grade. I started point guard 90 games State Champs and AllState and played both ways in football. It won't kill you but as B25 says hitting those knots feels like getting kicked in the N***s.

Point is this ..HS sports go by fast and its all there is for many. THere might be times you have to do less at practice( although) that never was allowed for me).

Drs are going to say what Drs have to say. Play ball.

"Drs are going to say what Drs have to say"

Swingbuster --that may be the way it is in Selma, AL but it certainly is not that way up here---when you have the right docs they work with you and help you

EXAMPLE-- my son when 11 seriously broke his right wrist in a basketball game ( he is right handed)--Doc, who played hoops at Syracuse with Dave Bing, put it in a soft cast--said he could practice but only using his left hand-- told my son that this is a blessing in disguise because when he takes the cast off he will be able to shoot with both hands--son even finished second in a foul shooting contest shooting lefty--

Come end of season and son is ready to get cast off but has All Star game and playoffs ahead---Doc tells me to leave the room so he and my son can chat-- a few minutes later the door opens and my son says " Dad, I am going to pass on next weeks All Star Game so I am ready for the playoffs the week after"---

That is how a doctor should talk-- to the kid--explain his choices and how much better it would be to wait an extra week and be on the safe side--

They( doctors) are liable financially in a litagating world for their decisions so they will take the most conservative route.

The decision about your son was a good one. Refracturing a healed but poorly calcified bone in the arm is much more serious than the averge O-S condition the post is about. Thats true in Selma or anywhere.

I played with it (the tibia deal) two years did you? I was not sitting out and no DR suggested that I sit out. That pre-dated lawyers sueing everybody

Do pro QBs go back in the game after getting knocked coo-coo. Can Drs go on record as saying ..great idea.

My point is take his situation as a DR in account and act accordingly. The best recomendation will always be rest. O-S disease can hang around so long you miss out on life. We are talking a sports season which means a year to these kids not a coouple of weeks. THe arm needed 2-4 more weeks and it was stronger than the other one..... a done deal.

I work on bones for a living

My older son had OS and my younger son has it. My older son is a catcher, but he stopped catching from the summer after sixth grade until freshman tryouts. He still played baseball spring, summer and fall, but only as a first baseman or dh. He no longer suffers any ill effects from the condition but does have large bumps on the top of both shins. He played when he could and rested when the pain was too intense. That was the advice we received from his doctor then and it is the same advice another doctor has now given our younger son.

My daughter had this 'disease'. She was told by TWO orthopedics, do whatever you want---if it hurts stop! She was NEVER told to have complete rest. I specifically asked about doing damage and was told (and I belive) that she really could not cause damage. It lasted about 8 months and is gone now and she continues to play basketball and softball.