Is your child’s achy back more than just growing pains?

​According to a new literature review in the January issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, it is becoming more common for children and adolescents to seek medical care for back pain. In fact, it has been said that nearly one in three adolescents report back pain.  I have also seen an increase in the number of children presenting with back pain and discomfort in practice over the last few years. There can be a number of causes for back pain in children and sometimes, all of the expensive tests and scans may not be able to find the exact cause of the problem.  So what are the common causes for back pain in children and how can we help? Continue reading to find out. 

According to the study, the most common “diagnosable” causes of back pain for children and adolescents are:

• Stress fracture(s) in the low back (spondylolysis)
• Instability or a forward shift of the lower spine above the tailbone (spondylolisthesis)
• Poor posture - like slouching forward
• Overuse injuries from poor conditioning or overtraining
• Disc herniation
• Infection

When you look at this list, the first two and the last one are rare.  These are ones that can be easily diagnosed with appropriate imaging and testing.  However, the study said for nearly two thirds of adolescent patients, clinical physical examination and imaging may not produce clear cause for their back pain. The lead author, Suken A. Shah, M.D said "It could be from a muscle strain, poor posture, too much training in a single sport or multiple sports in the same season, or the opposite--too little activity and not enough exercise."

To me this basically means that two thirds of injuries to the children are likely to be due to posture, too much/too little training or exercise.  All of these can be easily dealt with and likely prevented in the first place if they were functioning well and did appropriate exercise, stretching etc.

How to help prevent these injuries
To help prevent or minimize back pain, Dr. Shah encourages patients to:

• Maintain proper posture;
• Maintain good core muscle strength, flexibility and aerobic conditioning;
• Exercise regularly to avoid a sedentary lifestyle; and,
• Avoid frequent use of heavy backpacks, and always wear both backpack straps to better distribute the weight of the load.

These are all great points.  If children, and adults for that matter, maintained good posture, core strength, flexibility and did regular exercise, they may be able to avoid having back aches and pains. From my point of view, having a spine that is functioning well is also important to add to this list.  If there are underlying problems that are not addressed, then you may still get recurring aches and pains.   You need a good foundation to build off.

If your child is experiencing back problems, make sure you have them assessed properly to help rule out any underlying dysfunction. They can then get started working on proper posture, core strength and flexibility to help prevent future problems.

There are a few other key points to cover here as well.

1. If your child (or anyone) is experiencing weakness, numbness or pain that extends into the legs, or pain that wakes you at night, or pain that is getting worse, you need to get it assessed quickly.  These signs can be linked with more serious problems.
2. The last point above regarding backpacks is an important one since children will be heading back to school shortly.  You don’t want to create imbalances by carrying the bag on one shoulder all the time.  Make sure they use both straps and have the bags packed correctly.  You can read a previous post I have written on backpacks here.
3. Children often do a lot of sport these days.  I recently wrote a post on how much sport is too much for kids.  There is a certain number of hours per week that a child should stay under before it may become problematic ad starts to become detrimental to overall health.  You can read it here.

 
References

• American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. (2016, January 5). "Is your child's achy back more than just growing pains? ." Medical News Today. Retrieved from  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/304684.php.