7 year old complaining of back pain

[Wackadoodle84]

7 year old DD was complaining of back pain Wednesday. She said it started hurting during PE (jumping jacks) and she had to sit out rest of activities.

Wednesday evening could clearly see it was bothering her, wincing if reaching out for something, painful to bend or try and pick something up from floor. Gave her nurofen, she seemed perfectly fine on Thursday.

Had her at friends house Friday to play and from just looking at her playing it was clear back was sore again, putting hand to back when running, avoiding trampoline.

Will obviously bring her to gp on Tuesday but in the meantime has anyone had a younger children with back pain? It's not something I would have imagined a 7 year old would suffer from!

My teen is a lot older ( 16) but had the same as your child but without the injury , hers came in suddenly . For her they did bloodtests, and Xrays . Hers came back normal so she now has phiso as her spine is slightly in the wrong place . May not be the case with your child , but get all the tests done first and then see what comes of it :)

Back pain in a child isn't ever normal - book a GP appointment for tues like you say

Possibly a uti? My children have never had one so not sure of they present differently but I had back pain that started last week and the burning when wee'ing only started yday eve. Had a uti when pregnant too with only backache as symptom but put it down to pregnancy pains. Was only picked up in routine test

Ds1 hurt his back playing on in the trampoline last year. Took about 2 weeks to get better completely. I'd keep an eye but wouldnt be off to the GP just yet.

Totally agree with sunshineandlaughter.
Kids don't get mechanical back pain like adults so def get a gp appointment.

unless she had a fall/physical strain bouncing on a bounceball all day long then it's very unusual.
yes, go see gp to rule out uti.

Op how is your DD? Interested to know what your GP said. My Dd is also 7 and sometimes complains of back pain. She does a lot of gymnastics and has already been diagnosed as hypermobile so the GP has put it down to this when we've been.

Aged 11 I had back pain, turned out to be a slipped disc with debris sitting on my nerve. My parents were not particularly concerned as I was so young. I ended up having a year off school and surgery.

Back pain in a young child is unusual. Please get it checked out.

Earliest appointment I could get for her is Thursday (tomorrow) so will update after.

She has been in great form over the weekend but I do still notice her putting her hand to her back when running, avoiding jumping activities etc.

No injury that I'm aware of, she is very active generally, plays Camogie, football, swimming.
No signs of a uti so far but would certainly be no harm getting urine tested. My gut instinct is this needs to be checked, probably just a strain or pulled muscle but I would be happier having that confirmed

Yes. Good idea to get it checked and don't let GP fob you off.

Sore backs are not really "normal" in young kids, although of course injuries can and do happen at any age.
2 of my DC have a genetic condition, the symptoms of that include hyper mobility and an increase in the risk of joint,muscle and tendon injury. Both had incidents of painfully jarring their backs as young kids, doing PE at school or in normal rough and tumble games- in retrospect the back problems were a strong indicator that they had the genetic condition, which wasn't diagnosed/recognised officially until very recently, the tests were only developed a few years ago.

Does your dc (or close family members) have a history of joint sprains (particularly shoulders, fingers, ankles), elbows and knees that bend further than most people's? Other joint/skin/teeth problems?

Maybe your dc has just fallen awkwardly during PE and pulled a muscle - but if there is an underlying reason why her back was injured, it's important to know, as she may need to tailor the type of exercise she does to reduce the risk of joint/back injuries over the long term (while keeping fit and healthy).

Schools can be bloody awkward (or great!) about this, we've had both experiences

Raeray- some kids, absolutely DO get mechanical back pain! Admittedly it's rare but various conditions can cause it...

Andholdthebun, no history of sprains or strains but she certainly is very bendy, as in can bend fingers back at awful looking angles (her party trick)

She is currently out tearing around the garden with her twin playing football before school so it's definitely not holding her back from activities in any way.

Appointment is at 3 today so will update after.

Probably worth highlighting to the GP that she has at least some degree of hyper mobility- it might be relevant (depending on how interested they are in that, they may want to check her knees and elbows (the angles the make when fully straightened) and maybe other joints. Hope it all goes well this afternoon

So gp couldnt find anything unusual on examination.
Urine all clear, chest all clear.
She has been referred for an xray, physiotherapy and bloods to be done if no improvement within a month. Back in 1st week of June.

There is a bit of a waiting list for physio so have booked her a private appointment for next Tuesday. Hopefully it will help

This is interesting to me because when I took my then 8 year old to the GP with backpain she told me I should have just given him calpol and not wasted her time. Two years on and he still complains regularly of back spasms. Annoyed with myself now for letting myself be told off/fobbed off. Hope it resolves for your DD.

Physiotherapist discovered a lot of tighteness in left side of back and right sided leg muscles and has been working on those.

Massive improvement since then. She can actually play pain free. She has had xrays today but am not expecting anything to show up on them.

Glad to have a happy, pain free girl back

Hi everyone
I have a nine year son and his having back pain for last 5weeks.I have taken him to hospital and they did MRI on his back other several tests like blood and urine all these results came back normal last week I took him hospital again and they did another blood test and found his got slightly D level down. And now his talking vitamin D but his pain is not changing at all. Can anyone give me any advice please I don’t know what to do now

Hello I just come across your post well researching back pain in children my little one is six and a half years old and has been recently complaining that her back hurts on the trampoline and well running she definitely has a bit of hyper mobility and is undergoing genetics I just wondered what genetic condition your children have as the waiting for answers is driving me crazy
thank you
Michelle

Hi I’m also wondering how you got on my daughter just turned 8 and shes been complaining of back ache for last few weeks on and off

Have you seen doctor or anything my daughter has back ache too on and off