Frequently, I am called upon to treat children with lower back pain. The precipitating incident is typically a sports injury, a schoolyard trauma, or, most frustratingly, an insidious onset, one not recognized by the child or parent. Invariably, the parent asks, somewhat desperately, why her child has this problem. “She is just too young to be starting with back pain,” the parent pleads. The assumption is that children simply do not have sore backs, and yet, I see lots of kids and adolescents suffering from lower back trouble.
A recent article in The Back Letter (Vol. 17, No.3) sheds much light on this problem. I found it quite informative and hope that you, my readers, will as well.

It seems that numerous studies have been conducted in North America, several European countries and Australia. The consensus is that childhood and adolescent low back pain is much more prevalent than previously thought. The odds of a child having at least one bout of lumbar pain are between 30% and 51%, depending on the study. A Danish researcher found 30% of kids in grade 3 had back pain, while 50% of adolescents suffered some degree of back pain. In Britain, it was found that the annual incidence of back pain rose from 11.8% at the age of 12 to 21.5% at age 15.

The precipitating incident or “cause” of the pain was usually identified in these studies as “activities of daily living”. This term covers pain experienced while playing sports, falls and other traumas, and carrying backpacks. A European study found that various factors tended to increase the likelihood of a child suffering from low back pain. These factors were age (the older the child, the greater the tendency), a history of trauma, a family history, playing competitive sports or higher levels of activity, stress, depression, increased physical height, smoking, and being female.
It appears that in the great majority of cases, no treatment is sought or required. The pain is either self-limiting or ignored in that only 15-26% of children from various studies ever visited a doctor. When they do seek medical help, parents and children alike often find the effort frustrating. For example, a study of 217 consecutive cases of disabling back pain that underwent bone scans found that almost 80% of children (averaging 13 years old) defied medical diagnosis. This trend is true in adults as well. The most common back problems are biomechanical in nature or functional; therefore, tests looking for structural changes are simply wasting the patient’s time and money and only serve to delay proper treatment. Proper treatment in these cases is one that offers functional solutions. A biomechanical approach to low back pain has been well proven in scientific literature to be the best method of treatment. Spinal manipulation, chiropractic adjustive procedures, therapeutic exercises and deep tissue massage all fit this approach to one degree or another.
Many medical doctors and pediatricians take a dim view of chiropractic care for children. There is a rising negative voice arising from this sector, often unduly influencing health care policy makers. This attitude is grossly unfair to the suffering child. Nothing can resolve a lumbar spine problem as fast nor as effectively as chiropractic adjustive therapy; both for adults and for children. Many times spending weeks and months pursuing fruitless medical tests and x-rays only serves to delay proper treatment of functional spinal troubles.

Montpelier Family Chiropractic  16603 Mountain Rd. Montpelier, Va. 23192 Ph1: 804-883-3000 Fax: 804-883-3060
email: DrNeiss@MontpelierChiro.com     website: www.MontpelierChiro.com