Growth spurts

[SoccerDad]

My daughter plays both soccer and softball. She got Sever's and couldn't play more than a minute of soccer before she had to come out of the game due to the intense pain.
I bought her the Asics cleats but I was really skeptical. They worked like a charm and her pain left within a week or two and she has been pain free ever since.

 

[guero_gordo]

For all the DDs that have suffered with Sever's, what do you do to help alleviate the pain? My DD has been complaining of heel pain off and on for a few weeks and it sounds like she is fighting Sever's. Is it just an advil\tylenol and rest situation or is there something I can do to help?

First thing, get a diagnosis to make sure she is not damaging the growth plates.

My son has Severs' from basketball, initailly had PT and a boot, then it became a matter of calf-stretches, NSAIDS, ice, and how much pain he can tolerate. Basketball is the worst, because of hard floors and extended time on his toes. We have never found shoes or orthotics that helped, but others do.

 

[Eric F]

Us too, we are waiting for DD to grow into her feet.

Yep. My 8yo DD is wearing a size 6 or 6-1/2 - same as her 14yo sister. From March to July, we went through 3 pairs of cleats just to accommodate her sprouting feet.

 

[cmustangsfp]

MY DD is 12, stands at 5,5 about 126 has only 1 more inch to catch her mother and then 6 more inches to catch me. She is in size 11 shoes (It is hard to find her shoes at the stores, most have to be ordered).
My oldest DD is 13 is 5,3 and about 103 lbs, her sister caught her at age 3 in height and then outgrew her ever since. For a while she was not growing nearly as well as her younger sister. We finally attributed the slow growth to her habit of eating her food really slowly. She would get full before her body had enough to grow. We started implementing Gatorade and Boost High protein shakes to help give her body the energy she needed to grow. She had a 3inch growth spurt after we started doing that. She now has days where she will eat 4 cheesburgers in one setting, 11 slices of pizza (small pizzas), 2 double fish fillets, etc and then she has days where she will revert to nibbling on her food. She is nowhere near being overweight, but she looks more healthy now and not more skin and bones type. So if you have a DD that is not growing you might try adding some high protein shakes to her diet. That is what helped out DD out. That and getting her to stop dawdling when she eats.

 

[cmustangsfp]

P.S. we used the premixed shakes so no powdery/grainy shakes like the weight lifters use.

 

[splinterpicker]

Im sorry I do not get it. I can tell you from personal expierence there can be side effects to protein shakes. I drank those things when I was younger for football weight. They gave me an ulcer and over worked my kidneys. I did gain weight from increased appeitite which later on was very difficult to decrease. Some of them now are close to being a steroid in my uneducated opinion

 

[Cat5]

For all the DDs that have suffered with Sever's, what do you do to help alleviate the pain? My DD has been complaining of heel pain off and on for a few weeks and it sounds like she is fighting Sever's. Is it just an advil\tylenol and rest situation or is there something I can do to help?

Our DD has suffered for a couple of years now with Severs ranging from extreme pain to tolerable pain. We've taken her to a sports podiatrist several times and this is the course of action we were told to pursue:
- Firm heel inserts (we got ours from the podiatrist) for any shoes that are being worn anywhere. Gel inserts or inserts that are too soft can actually exacerbate the condition. The inserts temporarily lift the heel, shortening the tendon and minimizing the pain. After a couple of weeks when the inflammation has settled- they need to be removed.
- Daily stretching of the calf and heels. This should be done in several ways, 5-6 times every single day- with or without pain from severs. DD has continued stretching every day and appears to be holding it at bay- she hasnt had a flare up for a long time. Also takes extra time during warm ups to stretch out the heel & calf properly.
- Daily icing of the heel/back of heel area during a flare up. Aim for 15 minutes, 3 times a day when possible. We have a couple of bags of frozen peas that we rotate just for this purpose. You could also try a heel wrap but we find bags of peas work well .
- Total rest during bad flare ups for a few days (while icing, stretching, resting). DD would want to continue to train because once warmed up and running she would be fine to play through the pain. It was when she would be standing or walking or after training that she would be biting her lip in pain, and in agony in the car on the way home . Sometimes you have to skip 1 or 2 practices, or risk setting up a bad inflammation that could take many more weeks to settle. Although it probably wont cause future damage if you play through the pain, our specialist strongly recommends stopping activity for a while because resting it will relieve the pressure on the heel bone, decrease swelling, reduce pain and get things back to normal a lot faster.
- Aiming to wear shoes with proper laces/supportive straps/proper support- no Mary Jane straps, ballet flats or flip flops when possible. This is because properly laced shoes can take the pressure off the foot/heel to lift the shoe.
- Awareness & communication- when the heel even starts to hurt she needs to tell you. She/you need to take action asap- get ice on it, get it rested, get the inserts going, do the stretches 5-6 times a day. If you let it go on too long, it will take much longer to recover. If you get onto it right away you could be looking at 3 days of rest and a manageable condition. If you keep waiting it will take longer to heal and she'll have weeks of having to play through intense pain or get to the point of not being able to play at all.

It's worth spending a bit of money to go to a professional and make sure the pain she has is Severs. There are a few things that can all present with similar symptoms just with differences in pain locations etc. I hope the pain goes away for your DD asap- it can be awful .

 

[quandofloo]

First thing, get a diagnosis to make sure she is not damaging the growth plates.

My son has Severs' from basketball, initailly had PT and a boot, then it became a matter of calf-stretches, NSAIDS, ice, and how much pain he can tolerate. Basketball is the worst, because of hard floors and extended time on his toes. We have never found shoes or orthotics that helped, but others do.

That is what scares me the most. My DD plays on a travel basketball team that I coach. We are about to hit a very hectic time for her since she is trying out for travel softball that will start soon and we had our first informal basketball practice yesterday. I will have to keep a close watch and we will take her to get checked out if she has any more pain in her heels.

 

[cmustangsfp]

Im sorry I do not get it. I can tell you from personal expierence there can be side effects to protein shakes. I drank those things when I was younger for football weight. They gave me an ulcer and over worked my kidneys. I did gain weight from increased appeitite which later on was very difficult to decrease. Some of them now are close to being a steroid in my uneducated opinion

I am not talking about the weight lifter type of protein shakes, I am talking about the "protein shakes for the rest of us". My growing DD's needed more protein than they were taking in. The middle aged DD (the one in the middle of the ages, not at middle age) who spurted past her older DD NEVER had a problem eating. The older one had a problem of eating too slow, therefore not getting enough calories in to support growth, so she remained smaller. These are kind of like the Ensure brand drinks they recommend for senior citizens when they are not getting enough calories in to maintain their health. I would not put my DD's on steroids unless it was for a medical condition.

 

[starsnuffer]

They grow the most before puberty and pretty much slow down to a crawl after that.

-W