Sever's Disease

Is your child suffering from heel pain? Well, it is possible that they may be suffering from a condition termed Sever’s Disease. This condition normally starts around age 10 to 16, but may occur earlier or later depending on your child’s growth. When your child is born, the majority of their bones are actually made of cartilage. As your child develops, this cartilage will be replaced with bone to give them the skeleton that we are all used to seeing. This process takes many years though and some of their bones will not be finished until they are around 20 years old. In the heel bone, there are two different areas that the bone originates from, in the middle and where your Achilles tendon attaches. When these two areas meet up, they may start to rub against one another causing irritation in your child’s heel. This is often exacerbated in very active kids because they are moving around much more which causes a greater amount of rubbing to occur.

Some of the things that you can do include limiting your child’s activity and making sure they get plenty of rest. But, let’s be honest, most kids can’t sit still for even five minutes. So, in order to help their active lifestyle your podiatrist has several options that may benefit your child. The first thing that will be done is evaluate them to make sure that there are no other underlying causes of your child’s pain. If it is in fact determined to be Sever’s disease, then we can look into foot orthoses, taping and bracing and shock absorbing shoes for your child.

The foot orthoses are important for some children that tend to have a more pronated foot. This means that when they walk there foot tends to flatten out more causing additional pull on the connective tissue attaching to their heel. It has been observed that there is a correlation between pronated feet and Sever’s disease. So, designing orthoses that fit your child will help to prevent them from flattening out their foot and will often relieve the pain they are experiencing. Taping and bracing can help to limit the motion of the ankle joint during activity causing less irritation to occur. After the symptoms have been relieved, shock absorbing shoes can help to prevent the pain from reoccurring. If your child is still experiencing pain though, the doctor may suggest some pain killers to help offer some relief.

Sever’s Disease is a condition that will eventually go away once your child has finished forming bone in their heel. However, it can be a very painful and self-limiting condition and it is important to seek medical assistance for the matter.