Recovery & Support for Growth Plate Injuries

Because growth plates are so important to skeletal development, specialists at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone carefully monitor children with growth plate injuries as they recover. If your child is treated with a cast, brace, or splint, the doctor may schedule follow-up appointments for three to six weeks. If your child is treated with surgery, the doctor may schedule follow-up visits three months, six months, and one year afterward to ensure the growth plate and bone are healing correctly.

As your child heals and grows, our specialists ask that you encourage your child to keep moving and to practice safe techniques—such as always wearing proper padding and safety gear during physical activity and warming up and stretching beforehand—in order to prevent another injury. Your child’s doctor can advise you on how to ease your child back into physical activity as he or she recovers, depending on the type of treatment your child has received.

Our child and family support services and resilience programs are provided by Sala Institute for Child and Family Centered Care.

Physical Therapy

Many growth plate injuries require no rehabilitation after treatment. But if your child’s mobility and weight-bearing activity are restricted during and after treatment, NYU Langone specialists may recommend physical therapy to help your child regain range of motion, muscle strength, and joint flexibility in the affected area.

Rehabilitation specialists at the NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital and Rusk Rehabilitation can perform physical therapy on an outpatient basis to help your child ease back into everyday activities, including sports. Our physical therapists use the recommendations of our surgeons to design a program of therapeutic exercises tailored to your child’s needs. They can also instruct you and your child in additional strength and flexibility exercises that you can do at home.

Child Life Specialists

Our child life specialists are available to help your child cope with the stress that can result from an injury. During each stage of diagnosis and treatment, these specialists ensure children feel safe and more at home in a hospital setting.

Our child life specialists can talk with your child about a diagnostic test or treatment and explain why it is needed. A child life specialist may also stay with your child during a procedure to calm him or her and suggest ways for you to comfort your child. Before or after a procedure, a child life specialist can support your child with therapeutic play and pain management without medications.