What should I do if my child has a backache and what causes pain?

Back pain is usually more characteristic of adults. But in no case should they ignore their appearance in children. If a child complains of back pain - for parents this is a signal for action. What can cause pain and what to do with it, we will tell in this article.

A child's back always hurts for some reason. There is no causeless pain in this part of the body. All reasons can be divided into several groups. The back can hurt due to injury, and this is a fairly common situation. Pain can be a symptom of disorders in the state of the spine - scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis.

The next group of causes concerns the complications of viral diseases. Often, influenza, SARS, some other infectious diseases cause rheumatism. Back pain can be associated with diseases that are not related to the musculoskeletal system, for example, some kidney diseases that cause low back pain.

Let's look at some of the most common causes of pain. This information is provided as a reference, it can not be used for self-diagnosis, only a doctor can make an accurate diagnosis.

This is quite a common cause, which gradually leads to the fact that the child complains of aching pain in the back. The load on the back muscles is unevenly distributed among children who wear an uncomfortable knapsack, overload it with textbooks, as well as children who learn lessons and work in an improperly organized workplace - with insufficient lighting, low or excessively high a chair or table.

Incorrectly distributed vertical load with incorrect posture, long stay in a sitting position. Therefore, children who prefer computer games to all entertainment in the world, much more often than others complain of back pain.

Children who sleep on a soft mattress with a large pillow also suffer with pain. In a dream, the body of the baby "fails", the physiological curves of the spinal column take the wrong position.

Constant tension of the back muscles leads to impaired blood circulation in them, which is manifested by pain. The child may complain of pain usually in the afternoon, pain can be observed in the area of ​​the shoulder blades, in the lumbar region.

To fix the situation is quite simple. The action plan is as follows:

• show the child to the children's orthopedist to find out whether scoliosis and other changes in the spine caused the load distribution disorder;
• buy the easiest recliner for your child - the “eight” so that he can maintain his posture;
• organize the workplace correctly - think over the lighting, the height of the furniture;
• change the backpack or bag to a child with an orthopedic backpack or a backpack with rigid orthopedic tabs and make sure that the backpack is not too heavy;
• change the mattress on the child’s bed to hard orthopedic, replace the large pillow with a small and dense one, or teach the child to sleep without a pillow;
• limit the time spent by the child at the computer, prohibit reading while lying down.

Children often fall, jump, run, and therefore complaints of back pain may occur after jumping on a trampoline, after falling from a bicycle or from a swing, even after physical training, if the exercises were associated with jumps or sharp turns of the body.

Suspect trauma in a child can be the nature of the pain. If in the first case it is aching and muffled, then when a spinal cord is injured it is sharp, strong, often accompanied by “backache”. In the case of injury to a single vertebra, a small edema can be seen on the spinal column, the touch of which will be painful enough for a son or daughter. In some cases, vertebral fractures are asymptomatic, and the pain increases gradually.

Spinal injuries may be accompanied by headache, nausea, loss of consciousness, and impaired motor coordination. To wait in this case is impossible. If a child complains of back pain after physical activity, jumping, visiting rides, falling, you should act immediately. The action plan is:

• put the child on his back, fix it as much as possible, immobilize;
• call the ambulance and wait for the doctors;
• in case of severe pain, an analgesic can be given to the child, but not in tablets, since the swallowing reflex may be impaired; it is better to make an intramuscular angle in the upper part of the thigh in front.

To determine the nature and extent of the injury, if any, it is necessary to contact a traumatologist, surgeon or vertebrologist. The ambulance will carefully take the child to the hospital where the appropriate specialists will find the cause of the pain and start the appropriate treatment.

It is not necessary that the child be exactly a fracture. Bruises and sprains are not excluded, but the first reaction measures of the parents should be exactly as described above in order not to harm the baby in case of a fracture.

Quite often, muscle pain in the back area manifests itself as an effect after suffering a sore throat or flu. Rheumatic pains usually occur after an acute period of illness, when body temperature returns to normal. Rheumatism itself may be accompanied by a new round of fever.

Pain is acute and painful. To distinguish them from injury is quite simple - before the appearance of pain, there were no physical activities, falls and jumps. Often the area of ​​the shoulder blades, the cervical region.

Myositis often develops - inflammation of the muscles as a result of the illness or hypothermia, for example, after being in a draft or a long swim in a cold pond.

The procedure should be as follows:

• the child must be at rest;
• provide dry heat;
• call a pediatrician;
• start applying local remedies - ointments and gels that the doctor will prescribe;
• after the acute period is left behind, you can do physical therapy, massage and gymnastics.

The child starts complaining of back pain if scoliosis develops in full swing. Curvature of the spine at the initial stage may not manifest in any way, however, a moment necessarily comes when strained muscles can no longer hold curved vertebrae painlessly, trying to compensate for the distribution of the load.

Most often, children of early school age, as well as adolescents from 10 to 16 years old, experience such pains. Painful attacks repeated with enviable periodicity. It has a different intensity, then amplifies, then decreases. Especially bad back after a long walk, after exercise or having to sit for a long time (in class, for example).

Other symptoms include fatigue, headaches, visual displacement of the shoulder blades relative to each other in height, different height of the shoulders, hunchedness and lowered shoulders.

The action plan for parents is as follows:

• visit with a child orthopedic surgeon or traumatologist. If there is a doctor-vertebrologist in the hospital, you can visit him;
• make x-rays of the back, stop (to exclude also flat feet as the cause of back pain);
• start treatment according to the regimen prescribed by the doctor - wear a corset or posture corrector, visit an exercise therapy room, a physiotherapy room, massage the child;
• for sleep, choose a hard surface - hard “shields” that can be bought in any orthopedic salon;
• monitor the correct organization of the workplace, select the correct backpack with wide shoulder straps and an orthopedic back;
• limit the time watching TV and playing games at the computer;
• Give the child to the swimming section - this sport will help strengthen your back and quickly achieve a stable therapeutic effect.

Among other reasons that may well cause discomfort in the child’s back, The following can be noted:

• kidney disease (pain in the lumbar region of the back, among the additional symptoms - urination disorders, pain during urination, discoloration and amount of urine);
• tuberculosis (any part of the back can hurt, additionally there is a general deterioration of health, prolonged fever, which cannot be reduced by medications, individual disorders of the respiratory organs);
• blood diseases (leukemia or sickle-shaped anemia may well cause quite noticeable muscle pain in the back, pallor of the skin, dizziness, bouts of unconsciousness, headaches, appetite disturbances, delayed development) are also noted;
• tumors, cysts (the presence of any neoplasm may be accompanied by back pain, additional symptoms may not be).

If the orthopedist and traumatologist do not find any signs of trauma, abnormal posture, spinal column, or muscular system of the back in your child, be sure to contact your pediatrician to get directions for blood and urine tests. Visit a nephrologist, pediatric oncologist and hematologist if you have any abnormalities in laboratory tests.

Dr. Komarovsky will tell you about the healthy back of the child in the next video.