Children suffer from many diseases and disorders in their childhood days, but chronic back pain is a rare disorder that is found in them. The general cause of a childs back pain is an injury or sitting and standing in bad postures. But if there occurred no injury and still your child is suffering from a consistent back pain, do you know what to do? Well, your child needs an immediate medical attention.
Back pain in children not just come with a constant and harrowing pain, but is also accompanied with many other symptoms like high fever, loss of weight, behavioral changes, weakness, sleeplessness and nausea. You need to keep a constant tap on any of these symptoms and report immediately to a nearby doctor if the conditions do not improve.
The only way to get to the root of your childs back pain is with a proper medical attention. You should get a spine X-ray test done and find out the accurate cause of the suffering. Right diagnosis will only lead to a right treatment. The other tests that may help you find the reasons of back pain are MRI, a bone scan, CT scan, blood tests and ESR.
Your child can suffer due to back pain due to the following reasons:
Bad Postures: Children have a habit to sit in bad postures while studying, reading, eating and watching TV. It is the biggest cause of back pain in children. You need to take a regular notice of that and correct your child whenever he follows a bad posture.
Injuries: Injuries remain the most common cause of back pain in children. A minor fall can cause a muscle pull or even strain a ligament. If not taken seriously, the problem can aggravate. Pain due an injury can be treated with anti-inflammatory medicines, effectively. Ibuprofen is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is commonly used. But these medicines should be under the medical supervision of a good doctor only.
Spondylolysis: Over five per cent of children suffer due to back pain that falls in this category of spondylolysis. In this disease there occurs a fracture in the lower vertebra of the spinal cord. If not taken care of properly, the pain may aggravate. In such situations, surgery and bracing remains the last option. The problem with this disorder is that, in children it does not come up with any symptoms. Therefore sometimes it becomes difficult to find out if the child is suffering from this disorder.
Herniation of the disk: Herniated disk is a rare cause of back pain in children. If it occurs, it causes weakness and numbness in the childs body. The only treatment to this type of back pain is bed rest and surgery in rarest-of-rare cases.
Potts Disease: This disease occurs due to TB of spine in children. The disorder can be cured with the administration of antibiotics like, third generation cephlaosporins and ceftriaxone.
Diskitis: This disorder occurs due to infections in the disk. Infection leads to high fever, back pain, muscle spasms coupled with behavioral irritability. If not taken care of the disorder at the early stages, there can occur acute complications in the later years of life. Treatment of this disorder includes bed rest coupled with a supervised course of antibiotics.
Pyelonephritis: If you were thinking that back pain could only occur due to some dysfunctionality in the spine, you were wrong. There also occurs a kidney infection that is a cause of back pain. In Pyelonephritis, children suffer due to a sharp pain that is usually on one side of the back. The pain is accompanied with high fever and nauseatic feelings. The child may also feel pain or a burning sensation while urinating.
Scheurman’s kyphosis: This disorder is common in adolescents, especially males. The upper back takes a round shape, thus bending the whole spine. There are two forms of this disease. One is flexible kyphosis and the other is non-flexible kyphosis. The treatment requires bracing up of the back.
Spondylolisthesis: Children who suffer from spondylolysis have a slip of their 5th vertebra. The sacrum also dislocates. The severe cases of this disorder can only be corrected with a surgery.
Besides these, there are other causes of back pain in children. They are tumors or neoplasms, malnutrition, suffering due to trauma, muscle weakness, arthritis and some of the other infections. But theses reasons are generally rare.
